AbstractsWomens Studies

This is a project on the social implications affecting the public and private implementation of the Moudawana (The Family Law) in Morocco. The project will analyze the power relations that operate through social norms and conventions in the form of gendered division of space, hindering a full implementation of the law. Furthermore, the project investigates how Moroccan women create agency within the Moroccan society. By analyzing the socio-historical context of the Moudawana and using sociological and anthropological theories, the projects seeks to explore the relations between tradition and legislation; gender and spaces; power and resistance. Throughout the project ethnographic data from Morocco will be used to underpin the analysis and theories. On the basis of the research, the project argues that informal rules hinder the implementation of the Moudawana through power relations that are unequally distributed based on gender. These relations and practices are the norm in the society which Moroccan women increasingly redefine and reinterpret and hereby challenge the cultural hegemony.