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Days after igniting widespread outrage with remarks urging young women to choose marriage over education, Justice and Development Party (PJD) Secretary-General Abdelilah Benkirane has responded, and not with an apology, but with defiance.
In a video posted to his Facebook page, the former head of government dismissed the backlash as a smear campaign orchestrated by unnamed actors ahead of the legislative elections and insisted that his words had been twisted by political opportunists.
Women’s rights slammed
Rather than distance himself from the polemic he sparked during a regional party meeting in Souss-Massa, Benkirane repeated his claim that delaying marriage for academic reasons amounts to a “crime against women,” a stance that continues to provoke strong reactions across the political and civil spectrum.
He made no apology, no clarification, only a repetition of his position that women should marry when asked, and worry about education later. For him, delaying marriage for academic achievement constitutes not just a mistake but a “crime against women.”
This brand of paternalism is not new to Benkirane. What shocked many this time was the bluntness of his message and the utter disregard for decades of struggle by Moroccan women to gain access to education and freedom of choice. His reference to feminist movements, local and international, dripped with scorn, as he declared he had no fear of them.
Benkirane claimed to support women’s education, so long as it aligns with “shared values,” a vague and self-serving phrase that seems to mean obedience to his worldview. In reality, his comments reduce women’s lives to a narrow path dictated by early marriage, as if ambition, autonomy, or timing were luxuries women could not afford.
The backlash was immediate. A number of women’s rights advocates issued a scathing response, denouncing the remarks as an “insult to women,” an attack on their dignity, and a betrayal of the long history of feminist struggle in Morocco.
Party tries to contain fallout
Even within his own party, damage control began. The PJD’s Women’s Organization released a statement attempting to clean up after their party leader, lamenting what they described as “malicious” interpretations of his words.
They tried to present Benkirane’s comments as a call for balance between education and family life. But balance, in his terms, seems to mean sacrificing one’s future for the sake of tradition.
The group claimed it initially avoided responding to what it called “pointless controversy,” but said it decided to intervene after what it described as “coordinated efforts to derail public debate and discredit” Benkirane.
In its view, the former head of government’s remarks merely reflected a “legitimate concern” over the country’s declining fertility rates, delayed age of marriage, and shifting family structures, issues the party believes require urgent national attention.
The statement rejected accusations that Benkirane opposes women’s education or empowerment. Instead, it argued that he called for a balance between academic success and family life.
The organization framed this position as one that respects women’s right to learn and work, while also encouraging them not to “miss natural opportunities” such as marriage, particularly, it claimed, in a context where families increasingly face social instability.
The organization also went on the offensive, accusing some women’s rights groups of “double standards.” It criticized what it called the “deafening silence” of certain associations regarding what it sees as real and ongoing hardships endured by Moroccan women, especially in rural and marginalized regions.
However, the organization’s defense did little to address the core concern raised by many feminists, which is the attempt to dictate the priorities of Moroccan women. By insisting that marriage must take precedence over education, even temporarily, Benkirane, and by extension, his defenders, appear to impose an outdated model of womanhood.
The debate has clearly moved beyond the content of a single speech and into a deeper reckoning over whose vision of womanhood will shape Morocco’s future.
Benkirane’s nostalgia for a Morocco where women waited quietly for marriage proposals while shelving their ambitions speaks less to morality and more to fear of change, of independence, of women who no longer ask for permission.
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