A comparative analysis of family law reform in two authoritarian constitutional monarchies (Morocco and Jordan) is proposed. The reform of family law in Morocco and Jordan presents an empirical puzzle. Support by the king was seen as crucial for the achievement of family law reform in Morocco in 2004 when Morocco issued a new family code. However, the Jordanian king supported family law reform as well and issued the amendments to the family code as royal decrees in 2001. Many members of the royal family were active in the campaign for legal change. Nonetheless, the amendments to the existing family law were blocked twice by the lower house of parliament in 2003 and 2004. Why should a reform supported by an authoritarian ruler fail? And why should an authoritarian ruler accept the open reversal of his decision? The paper will attempt to explain the different outcomes in the two monarchies and will address the question how policy-making works in an authoritarian monarchy taking family law reform as an example of policy-making. What role do international mechanisms such as CEDAW convention play in encouraging states to reform their laws and can these mechanisms account for the different outcomes? Do different actors (the state, women’s groups, religious authorities, Islamists) cooperate during the process, and how? And do the degree and kind of cooperation affect the outcome? Do actors and the state anticipate “learning effects” during the process and adjust their actions accordingly? In 2010 a new family draft law was issued in Jordan. The draft law has not been voted upon by parliament, but it is widely anticipated that the parliament will vote in favour of the law. One central argument that will be put forward thus sees the new inclusive nature of the family law reform process in 2010 in Jordan and the central role of the shari’a court administration (qadi al quda) as a central explanation for the new draft law being widely accepted. This alteration of practices can be seen as the result of a wider learning process of actors and the state alike. Nevertheless, the fact that the Moroccan king is far more dominant in the family law reform field than his Jordanian counterpart had as a result, that family law reform in Morocco reflects to a stronger extent the interests of the urban middle class which the Moroccan king intends to include in his power base.

Women in Lebanon have long been underrepresented in the law. Lebanese government is grounded in liberal tradition in all sectors of society, which intends to protect private freedom in the home from state intervention. Women’s rights and Personal Status Laws have been under the jurisdiction of the religious courts under the confessional system, in which the laws stem from religious interpretation unbound by state interference. In April 2010, the Lebanese Council of Ministers approved the KAFA (enough) draft law on the Protection of Women from Family Violence, which criminalizes domestic violence and places it under the jurisdiction of the penal law. The development of this bill has sparked a controversial public debate, in which gender roles and definitions are challenged, disrupting the patriarchal familial structure entrenched in Arab society. According to Michael Warner, in Publics and Counter Publics, “Social movements take shape in civil society, often with an agenda of demands vis-à-vis the state. They seek to change policy by appealing to public opinion” (51). Currently, the increased public arguments have highlighted various religious arguments against the bill and various feminist arguments supporting the bill. “The question for debate, then, is to what extent the environment for critical social movements is becoming more undemocratic, ‘refeudalized,’ or colonized by changing relations among the state, mass media, and the market” (Warner 51). KAFA’s public arguments include the “White Ribbon” campaign in universities, press conferences, and conferences open to the public refuting the arguments by Dar al-Fatwa (the highest Sunni Muslim authority) and the Islamic Council (the Higher Shia Muslim authority) against the bill. This paper explores the ideologic, as defined by Sharon Crowley, of the Muslim religious arguments in opposition to the bill, and rhetorically analyzes the public debate to illustrate how the articulation of religious and feminist positions in a public forum reframes the long-silenced issue. This paper argues the debate has redefined the public sphere in which gender is not only debated, but the public circulation of a once-private gendered issue embodies the reciprocity between public and private.

In 2004 Morocco reformed its old Personal Status Code, which regulates marital relationships, child custody, and inheritance. The king placed the reformed Family Code firmly within the development discourse, with a clear aim and commitment to further reforms heeding societal evolution and preparedness. As such, the king asserted that the new Code is not “flawless” but “an ijtihad effort, which is suitable for Morocco at this point in time.” The notion of gradualism is perhaps the most salient guiding principle when analysing the Code or else the reforms may be dismissed as falling short of the feminist expectations and the international praise much the same as the 1993 reforms. Conflicting ideas as to what it means to liberate women based on the utilisation of not necessarily compatible legal frameworks––those of the Islamic legal sources and international human rights conventions, specifically CEDAW, UDHR, and UNCRC––by the activist communities resulted in the law to reflect this somewhat schizo backdrop. If anything, the current Code demonstrates the pragmatism of the king to placate the conservatives, while at the same time recognising the legitimacy of feminist demands. This paper will analyse the ‘unwritten,’ the implicit character of the Code’s stated goals–– “doing justice to women, protecting children’s rights, and preserving men’s dignity”––because it is these, rather than the stipulations per se, which undermine the overall result of the reform. Moreover, one of the less researched questions about this reform is whether reformed laws and accompanying women’s rights discourse have affected social reality and if they had in what ways. I shall discuss people’s attitudes towards two overarching development topics, those of women’s rights and gender equality, based on my own ethnographic data and that of various national and other surveys conducted in recent years. The aim of this paper is to challenge the dominant discourse on the failure of the Code as being one of lack of education, ignorance about the law, and general disempowerment of women, to argue that it is the law itself, non-existent welfare infrastructure, patriarchal bargains, and the issue of poverty, which need to be taken into account when discussing the status of women’s issues in Morocco.