Autobiography, Leila Abouzeid In Morocco, after 1912, the
colonial regime eschewed, for the most part, introducing overt
changes into Islamic personal status law. Indeed the patriarchy
of the reigning dynasty, the ’Alawis, and of the leaders of the
great tribes, was reinforced, since France wanted Morocco to
theoretically remain “traditional,” untouched by modernity.
Nevertheless France’s divide-and-conquer strategy indirectly
politicized Islamic family law by opposing it to customary law.
The colonial administration transformed cities, built roads, and
introduced rudimentary health care, but severely circumscribed
modern education, especially for girls. After World War I, a
massive influx of European settlers and land expropriations fed
the growing anticolonial nationalism. Rural, militant
resistance—in which women had always played an active part—to
the occupying French army had never ceased and continued in one
form or another until the outbreak of the nationalist revolt
during the aftermath of World War I