IT'S GOOD TO HAVE A KING:

Morocco moves gradually to address past repression: The king is boosting political transparency. Critics are cautious about calling it democratization. (Geoff Pingree and Lisa Abend, 9/23/05, The Christian Science Monitor)

When Mohammed VI assumed the throne in 1999, he moved to bring transparency to the political system, curb corruption, and elevate the status of women.

Yet in a country where portraits of the king hang in every business and political opponents are still arrested, democracy is not always easy to recognize. [...]

But supporters of gradual reform in Morocco, perhaps the most promising ally in the Arab world for both the US and Europe, assert that change occurs in increments, and that the process is the best way to avoid political upheaval and assure stability in North Africa and around the Mediterranean.

The changing status of women underscores the contradictory nature of the country's endeavor to become more democratic. Shortly after ascending the throne, Mohammed VI appointed the first-ever female Royal Counselor, and in 2002 he reserved seats for 30 female candidates in parliamentary elections.

The government is most proud of its recent Family Code. Approved in 2003, the law makes wives equal to their husbands, granting them shared ownership of assets and allowing them to divorce. For longtime women's rights activist Nezha Chekrouni, it was a fundamental shift. "It means we're moving from a logic of dominator and dominated, to a logic based on dignity," she says.

But before the law was ratified, Islamist groups vigorously protested its erosion of key Muslim principles governing relations between the sexes. Only after the Casablanca bombings, when such groups felt it necessary to demonstrate their loyalty, did their opposition evaporate, and parliament unanimously approved the code.

Spain's remains the only bombing that served evil rather than good.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 22, 2005 6:26 PM