Benkirane's party clashes with Moroccan human rights council over inheritance law

Morocco's Justice and Development Party (PJD) called on the council of human rights in the kingdom to "stop abusing the religious constants of Moroccan people," following its last statements against how inheritance is dolled out via Sharia law.

Nabila Bouayach, the head of the National Human Rights Council (CNDH), said last week that the inequality in inheritance law in Morocco contributes "to increasing poverty among women."

Morocco's inheritance laws state that women inherit half as much as men because of interpretation of the tenets of Islam.

Moroccan family code, a document that outlines laws and rules related to family matters, legalises ta'sib in inheritance, a law also inspired by Quran.

Ta'sib decrees that "female orphans who do not have a brother must share the inheritance with the male relative closest to the deceased … even if unknown and [has] never been part of the family". 

"Inequality in the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights is a fact that cannot be denied or ignored. (...) The State must approach this issue from an objective and human rights point of view," said Bouayach during a debate around the opinions of Moroccan people facing the inheritance law.

Bouayach's statements were not in the liking of the Islamist party PJD which devoted its decade in power (2011-2021) to opposing revisiting the law of inheritance.

PJD said Sunday that CNDH's statements abuse the religious constants of Moroccan people, adding that the debate around inheritance law should be led by "competent and specialised people, far from certain ideological arguments hostile to religious values".

"And to recall that in the speech of October 2003, King Mohammed VI had specified that he "cannot recommend the illicit or prohibit the licit"," added the party in an official statement published on its website.

In 2015, PJD's leader Abdellilah Benkirane, Morocco's prime minister at the time, accused CNDH of "fueling up strife" after submitting a recommendation, in which it called for equality in inheritance between the sexes. 

Benkirane demanded the council to "apologise" and withdraw the recommendation.