King Mohammed VI and the Politics of Inclusion: The Gendered Dimensions of Religious Reform in Contemporary Morocco

Since King Mohammed VI came to power in 1999, he has adopted a comprehensive gender-sensitive policy to promote women’s empowerment and gender equality in Morocco. Due to his dual role as both a political and religious leader, the monarch has played a crucial part in ensuring adequate consensus and overcoming polarization around the issue of advancing women’s status in the Kingdom. In the religious sphere, women have consolidated their positioning, notably after the Casablanca bombings on May 16, 2003. The events triggered a significant feminization strategy, which has granted women access to diverse religious positions. This strategy has contributed to fostering the position of Moroccan women in religious institutions and involved them in the fight against extremism. This article uses qualitative content analysis of a sample of royal speeches, letters, and Sharifian Decrees to examine the official gender policy in the religious domain. This analysis provides a backdrop for investigating five major gender-driven initiatives in the religious field: inviting women scholars to speak before the king during the Hassania Lecture Series in the month of Ramadan, appointing women scholars to various institutions of religious scholarship, initiating the training of female religious professionals, supporting female public recitation of the Quran, and allowing women to access the notary profession. Data analysis reveals that the king’s religious and political leadership and his oversight of gender-sensitive reform have facilitated the inclusion of women in the religious realm, despite its historically male-dominated nature.