Moroccan Women Face Barriers To Land Ownership, WB

The World Bank pointed out the difficulty that women face to access ownership of lands in Morocco.
In a recent report, titled “Land Matters: Can Better Governance and Management of Scarcity Prevent a Looming Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa?”, the Bank said that only 128 hectares were given to 867 women, who retained ownership of the Soulalyat since 2019, after adopting law 62-17 confirming women’s rights to benefit from ancestral lands alongside men.
The right to use the land for agriculture and benefit from its proceeds was traditionally passed down from father to son in the Soulalyat (communal rural land in Morocco), in tribal ethnic populations.
Because customary law covered 42% of Morocco’s land, an enormous social mobilization of rural women occurred in an attempt to obtain equal rights to inheritance.
In Morocco, women gain access to land primarily through marriage and inheritance. Their vulnerability is evident in the event of divorce or the death of their spouse.