Contrasting women’s rights in the maghreb and the middle east constitutions

Abstract

This chapter looks at how the Maghreb countries (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) have adopted significantly more women’s rights provisions in their constitutions compared with the countries in the Middle East. It attributes these differences to the presence of unified legal systems in the Maghreb; strategies of the political elite in attempting to neutralize Islamic extremism in the Maghreb; political party strategies, especially among leading Islamist parties in recent years; and the role of women’s movements, which collaborated across countries.