Washington, DC (March 8, 2011)— Today, as the world honors the 100th anniversary of International Women’s day, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton applauded Morocco for working to increase women’s rights, particularly economic empowerment, which she maintains will create a “ripple effect” across the world.

“Governments are passing laws that support women’s economic empowerment and building awareness of women’s rights,” wrote Sec. Clinton in a Bloomberg News editorial. “Morocco now allows women to start businesses and get jobs without their husbands’ approval,” Sec. Clinton noted.

Sec. Clinton reminded that such vital government support of women’s empowerment initiatives “add[s] fuel to a powerful engine for progress for women, their families, their communities and their countries.”

Over the last decade, Morocco has made tremendous advances that promote women’s rights and ensure equality. During a speech early in the reign of Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, he boldly asked “how can society progress while women, who represent half the nation, see their rights violated as a result of injustice, violence and marginalization?” A dynamic dialogue ensued among government officials, civil society leaders, religious scholars, and ordinary citizens which resulted in the passage of unprecedented reforms to the moudawana, the Moroccan Family Code. Today, women in Morocco have equal access to marriage, divorce, and child custody, and the revised labor code guarantees equal treatment of women in the workplace and criminalizes sexual harassment. Morocco is also a signatory to the international conventions dealing with women’s rights.

For more information on Morocco’s efforts to promote women’s rights and empowerment, please visit: http://www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org/subject_area.php?sub_id=12

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The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. For more, please visit www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org

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