VZCZCXRO7107
PP RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHGI RUEHJS RUEHKUK RUEHLH
RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHRB #0604/01 1951837
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 141837Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0410
INFO RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNMGH/MAGHREB COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0954

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 RABAT 000604 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR G, G/IWI, NEA/MAG, NEA/PI AND DRL/NESCA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KWMN KISL KDEM KMPI SOCI MO
SUBJECT: WOMEN LEAD MOROCCO'S "PETITE REVOLUTION" 
 
REF: A. STATE 071325 
     ¶B. RABAT 0485 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  In what is being hailed in the press as 
the "petite revolution," a dozen women have been elected by 
their men and women peers to chair local councils, making 
them mayors or the equivalent rural executives.  Prior to the 
June 12 municipal elections, only one woman had ever served 
as mayor of a Moroccan city.  A U.S.-educated woman became a 
regional celebrity when she was elected as the Mayor of 
Marrakesh, Morocco's biggest tourist destination, but on July 
13 the election in her district was invalidated due to voting 
irregularities.  The mayor,s post will be left open for now, 
and if appeals fail, there will be a revote.  Women won 3,400 
seats around the Kingdom in the election, a twenty-five fold 
increase in elected women officials in the country.  Although 
most were elected on a reserved women's list, hundreds were 
elected on general lists, at least tripling the number 
elected in competition with men.  With the women relatively 
more qualified than their male counterparts, this marks a 
turning point for women's political participation in Morocco. 
 Morocco now has more elected women officials than any other 
Arab country and has dramatically increased the visibility of 
women as leaders and policy makers, a critical step in 
shattering gender stereotypes and eliminating discrimination 
against women.  End Summary. 
 
------------------------- 
Women as Political Actors 
------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The Government of Morocco's (GOM,s) emphasis on 
bringing more women into the political sphere is likely to 
have a lasting long-term impact on women's political 
participation.  For the first time but likely not the last, 
women played a central role in the election process and 
outcome. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) As both candidates and voters, women participated 
in this election in greater numbers than ever before.  As 
reported Ref B, an astonishing 20,400 women ran for office, 
nearly 16 percent of the total number of candidates.  Just a 
decade ago, women made up less than 2 percent of candidates 
in the municipal elections and held few seats in local 
government.  Embassy election observers noted that, in some 
areas, women voters outnumbered men by two to one. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Despite some resistance by the political parties, 
women were generally well represented on the party lists (in 
addition to the lists reserved for female candidates).  Women 
candidates were elected from the party lists in greater 
numbers than ever before, illustrating the growing political 
clout of the increasing number of female politicians who 
would have been elected even without a quota.  In Morocco, 
council members both from the regular and reserved lists get 
together and elect from their number a chair, who has 
executive power as the mayor, then go on to similarly choose 
provincial, regional and national representatives. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
Involving Women the Cornerstone of Success 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶5.  (SBU) To maximize their electoral share, political 
parties have felt the competitive pressure to recruit and 
promote women candidates in order to gain the maximum number 
of reserved seats, as well as additional campaign funds from 
the GOM.  Those parties that resisted giving women valuable 
slots on the general party lists (reftel), restricting their 
female candidates to the bare minimum required under the 
quota, fared poorly in the elections.  The Socialist Union of 
Popular Forces (USFP) was particularly impacted by this 
practice, as many of its strongest female activists defected 
to other parties, such as the Party of Authenticity and 
Modernity (PAM) after unsuccessfully lobbying for top seats 
on the ticket.  One USFP candidate noted, "The government and 
the people may be ready for women leaders, but the political 
parties are not." 
 
¶6.  (SBU) In contrast, PAM's successful recruitment of women 
candidates likely played a key role in the party's 
significant showing in the elections.  PAM did the best job 
of enlisting women for its ticket, highlighting women 
candidates during the election and keeping women candidates 
in the spotlight.  Prior to the election, PAM aggressively 
targeted female incumbents from other parties, offering top 
spots on the party lists to those who defected, a tempting 
 
RABAT 00000604  002 OF 003 
 
 
offer for those women who were at the time fighting their own 
parties for equivalent treatment. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The Islamist-inspired Party of Justice and 
Development (PJD) was likely the second best recruiter of 
women.  Embassy contacts reported that many women were 
attracted to the PJD because it is considered the most 
transparent and honest party with internal democratic 
practices (contrasted with the smoky back room decision 
making and "old-boy" networks of the older parties). 
 
-------------------------------------- 
PAM Uses Women to Debate Modern Values 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) PAM used its women candidates to distinguish itself 
from other parties and to put forth a vision of Morocco that 
embraces modernity and the relatively new Moudawana (the 
revised Family Code, which is gaining increasing 
application).  The emphasis on women helped PAM win the most 
votes and most seats of any party in the council election. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) PAM candidate Fatima Zohra Mansouri, who studied 
law in the U.S. and is a descendant of the Pasha of 
Marrakesh, was elected by the council to be the Mayor of 
Marrakesh, Morocco's premier tourist destination.  However, 
due to voting irregularities in the district from which she 
was elected, an administrative tribunal discarded the 
election results and is requiring a revote.  The press 
reported on July 13 that Mansouri was removed as Mayor 
pending the outcome of the new elections.  However, the PAM 
is planning to appeal this decision.  Given that Mansouri, a 
mother of two young children who prefers professional Western 
suits, has become Morocco's most recognizable elected woman 
leader, a regional celebrity, and something of a test case 
for women leaders elsewhere, we expect PAM to push hard for 
her to regain her seat as Mayor.  Should the revote take 
place, we expect Mansouri to regain her seat. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Carrying its modernizing message to rural voters, 
the PAM nominated Fatima Boujnah, a 21 year old, educated, 
rural woman to be president of her municipal council.  She 
has broken ground as the youngest woman to be elected as a 
council president.  Prior to the election, she had been 
working to improve social welfare in her town and has 
announced that education and literacy, especially for girls, 
will be a major focus of her tenure. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Another well-publicized PAM candidate, 
U.S.-educated Kawtar Benahmou, appeared on a tractor (the PAM 
symbol) during the campaign wearing a tank top, long hair, 
and fashion sunglasses.  This image, probably the most widely 
publicized picture from the electoral campaign, contrasted 
sharply with the full-length chador-clad women candidates of 
the Islamist-inspired PJD, and the PJD's emphasis on 
"properly" wearing the veil (not with tight jeans, for 
example).  It should be noted, however, that the PJD, which 
has a strong component of women activists, also elected a 
large number of women. 
 
-------------------- 
The Need for a Quota 
-------------------- 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Although the greater inclusion of women in public 
life has been widely applauded in urban centers, resistance 
to women as political actors persists in rural and semi-urban 
areas.  According to a MEPI-funded focus group study on 
perceptions of women in politics, men in these areas continue 
to strongly oppose female leadership of their communities. 
This strong opposition justified the imposition of a quota on 
women's participation, asserted political activist Nouzha 
Ameziane.  "Without the quota, the number of elected women 
would have increased, but just barely," she insisted, adding 
that greater numbers of women leaders will accustom the 
Moroccan public to seeing women in positions of power and 
pave the way for greater gender equity in politics. 
 
-------------------------- 
Quality, Not Just Quantity 
-------------------------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Th influx of these new women leaders, selectively 
recruited for their educational and professional 
qualifications, has had the added advantage of raising the 
average level of education of elected officials overseeing 
the services provided by local governments, including water, 
 
RABAT 00000604  003 OF 003 
 
 
electricity, sanitation, public transportation and economic 
development.  According to the GOM, more than 70 percent of 
the women elected hold secondary degrees or higher.  In 
comparison, only 50 percent of elected men have reached the 
same level of education. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶14.  (SBU) The outcome of the June 12 election was a major 
leap forward by Moroccan women, capping a decade of 
increasing political involvement.  On top of the roughly 10 
percent in the Chamber of Deputies (Parliament,s lower 
house), women constitute 21 percent of the ministers 
nominated by the King to Prime Minister El Fassi's Council of 
Ministers.  The success of the PAM, which made women the 
center of their campaign strategy, was a particularly salient 
lesson to its political rivals that increasing inclusion of 
women in politics will actually confer an electoral 
advantage.  This appeal to political self-interest should 
help broaden political support for the Palace's efforts to 
use women's political participation to advance social 
development.  The next phase of consolidation will depend on 
the performance of the newly installed women leaders.  Their 
success, and public acknowledgment of that success, will 
advance the cause of gender equality in Moroccan society. 
 
¶15.  (SBU) The Mission will continue to monitor how women 
fare in contests for the regional, provincial, and upper 
house of Parliament seats, as these cascading elections take 
place over the next few months.  We have also begun an 
initial program of training some of the elected women 
councilors, in this case preparing them to contest the 
indirect elections for the provincial and regional councils 
and which fill one third of the upper house.  We are looking 
at possibilities for additional training and support for the 
new office holders, including long-term mentoring, from both 
existing and possible new USG-funded programs, as part of an 
increasing gender focus in our assistance programs and 
mission plan.  As part of this, we may wish to see how our 
existing programs and resources can be focused or deployed to 
support and encourage this new generation of women activists 
and politicians.  End Comment. 
 
 
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Jackson