Barely had the first points of the Moudawana reform been made public on December 24 when memes, jokes and demonstrations of hysteria, mostly male, exploded onto the networks. Everyone was talking about nothing else, from the taxi driver to the hairdresser to the public figures on the various TV and radio sets as well as on the networks.
However, were they really talking about the revision of the Moudawana, or about certain fantasies knowingly conveyed around the latter by the most conservative fringe of society? Between the greed of certain YouTubers and influencers, the intellectual sclerosis of certain conservatives and the screams of radical progressives, there was very little room for calm analysis and debate according to the rules of the art.
The methodical and pragmatic analysis of this reform has unfortunately given way to fear, panic and fantasies. For conservatives, men have once again been dispossessed of their rights by what they describe as “progressive drift», pointing the finger, for some, to a Western plot against Islam. For the progressives, the council of Ulemas and the State have once again bowed to the diktat of the crowd by refusing to go further in this reform movement.
But should we remind everyone that politics is above all the art of compromise? And that a good compromise always leaves everyone with an aftertaste of unfinished business? Should we also remind them that any compromise is by nature provisional, and that what really matters is the underlying dynamic, that of greater emancipation of people and increasingly consolidated dignity?
Because since the start of his reign, King Mohammed VI has always demonstrated a unique ability to achieve significant qualitative leaps, while preserving the harmony of society in all its contradictions and polarizations.
Since what counts from this point of view is not the satisfaction of this or that ideological camp, but above all the concrete and tangible situation of millions of men and women who suffer daily in silence, and that no agenda, neither progressive nor conservative, can hear. Because where these two ideological camps fight for ideas and texts, the king works for concrete humans.
“I would only invite you to do one thing: be careful of great ideas and great ideals, however laudable they may be, as soon as they begin, through their grandeur, to crush concrete individuals who suffocate under their weight.”
From the creation of the Equity and Reconciliation Authority to the reform of the Moudawana, including the creation of the INDH, the generalization of social security and many other reforms and initiatives, the King's primary concern was always to work for greater autonomy and a consolidation of the dignity of Moroccans, far from any ideological divide.
This humanism, which I would describe as “ realistic ”, is the only one that Moroccans really feel in their daily lives. And on this point, this reform of the Moudawana – which is still waiting to be drafted in detail and then voted on by Parliament – will protect millions of women and men against abuses which have lasted too long, and which We got into the habit of draping in religious texts or customs. Because many cling to the letter of the law while betraying its spirit.
No, men will not be dispossessed of their rights, because one cannot be dispossessed of what one possesses unduly. And those who are offended by the exclusion of the marital home from inheritance, have they ever been offended by the thousands of widows thrown into the street with their children, because of greedy uncles and cousins without conscience or fear? real from God?
Because Sharia was not revealed for God, but by God and for Men. Humans and their dignity are the goal, and Sharia is the path that leads there. And if it does not lead there, it is because, as our great Andalusian philosopher Ibn Rochd teaches us, it is a matter of reinterpreting it in the light of reason and the imperatives of reality. Because if there are no contradictions between Sharia and reason, it is because Sharia can be reinterpreted to make it adequate to the imperatives of reason, and not the other way around. And this is what the Council of Ulemas was able to demonstrate. Maybe not all the way, maybe not enough, but the dynamic is there.
So, to conclude, I will only invite one thing: be careful of great ideas and great ideals, however laudable they may be, as soon as they begin, through their grandeur, to crush the concrete individuals who stifle under their weight.
For, as another philosopher teaches us, “the ideal is always cleansed of a little reality which would stain“. However, the reality, that of millions of men and women, is what is too often obscured for the benefit of partisan and self-interested struggles.
