North Africa: Women at forefront of legal reform Women in North
Africa have made tremendous progress in promoting and upholding
their rights. Women in this region—commonly known as the
Maghreb—are at the forefront of the Arab world in terms of
individual rights and gender equality, and constitute models for
other Arab women to follow. A number of lessons may be drawn
from the inspiring experience of women in North Africa,
especially in Morocco and Tunisia. Access to justice has been
greatly facilitated by the new Family Courts in Morocco as
necessitated by the Moroccan Family Code of 2004. When women
marry, they are now able to retain ownership of their property
thanks to Article 49 of the code, which allows for a separate
contract on property alongside the marriage contract. This is in
accordance with Islamic law, in which women may remain the sole
owners of their property and have no legal obligation to share
it with their husbands. In addition, mothers married to foreign
nationals in Morocco and Tunisia ca