This paper will address the figure of the intellectual liberal activist woman in four Arabic-language Moroccan novels. Each of these novels—Muhammad Aziz Lahbabi's "Generation of Thirst" (1967), Fatima al-Rawi's "Tomorrow We'll Get Our Land Back" (1967), Khennatha Benouna's "Fire and Choice" (1969) and Ahmad al-Bakri al-Siba`i's "Labor Pains" (1972)—presents us with a major female character who is a liberal, educated political activist. The characters, and their authors, belonged to the very narrow intellectual class in the Morocco of that era; neither group was representative of the larger society. Such characters thus do not "fit in," and their authors are required to undertake major contortions in order to provide a plausible rationale for how their characters became activists. These contortions are not only often rather more interesting than the novels themselves, but also provide us with the opportunity to examine Morocco of the late 1960s through the prism of what was excluded from that society. In Rawi's case, only an earthquake that destroys her city and family enables her character the freedom to act. Both Lahbabi and Benouna try to dodge the question of how the activist became who she is, though in different ways, while only Siba`i is able to provide a means by which the intellectual female activist might become the rule rather than the exception. In all four novels, what is most salient about the female activist is that she is excluded from anything like a meaningful romantic life. The contortions required to keep her single yet unavailable are rather more complex than those necessary to make her an activist in the first place. Close examination of this phenomenon leads us to delineate a fault line in the culture in its refusal to allow a female activist entry into family life—a fault line that Moroccan novelists of the 1980s such as Leila Abouzeid will explore in detail.