The Family Judicial Department of the Court of First Instance in Midelt issued a judicial ruling rejecting a plea to remove the custody of a mother after she married after her first divorce, setting a precedent in Moroccan judiciary history.
The ruling states that the marriage of the mother for years does not forfeit custody of her eight-year-old girl from the first husband.
The plaintiff and defendant, together with the “custodial” girl, attended the hearing session in July when the plaintiff declared that he wanted custody of his daughter due to his ex-wife’s marriage to a foreigner.
According to the ruling, the daughter stays with her mother and her brothers from the woman’s second spouse.
The mother said that the eight-year-old is dedicated to her academics in the third grade. The girl further indicated that she lives with her mother and step-brothers and that she is happy with them.
The child explained that she does not know her father, who rarely visits her, and that she prefers to live with her mother.
In the justification for the operative ruling that refused to drop the mother’s custody, it was stated that the request met all of the formal conditions required by law.
“The marriage of the foster mother – the loss of her custody – not – considering the best interest of the child in custody – Yes – evidence of psychological harm to the fostered woman in the event of changing her custody environment necessitates giving preference to her best interest over the interest of the father and keeping the situation as it is,” is what the court ruled.
The court added that one of the conditions for eligibility to custody, according to Article 173 of the Family Code, is the ability to raise and care for the fostered child in religion, health, and morals, as well as to monitor his education, in its justification for this ruling, the first of its kind in Morocco.
While Article 171 of the Family Code authorizes the mother, then the father, then the mother’s mother, the court is required by Article 186 of the Family Code to consider the interests of the foster child in the first degree when applying the articles of the section related to custody, explained the court.
It was also stated in the verdict, file No. 63/2022, that “it was proven to the court through the conducted research that the child lives with her mother, accompanied by her husband and her brothers from her mother, and under her actual custody since her childhood, which she enjoys psychological stability with her mother.
It went on to say that the child’s refusal to join her father and live with him or reside with him is harmful to her, therefore staying with her mother is in her best interests.
A number of jurists confirmed, in identical statements to Hespress, that the operative part of the aforementioned ruling serves the best interests of children who enjoy good custody, whether they live with the mother or with the fathers, emphasizing that this ruling should be made a basic entry point for amending and reviewing some provisions related to custody in Morocco’s Family Code.
In recent years, various family courts in Morocco have grown clogged with judicial files filed by fathers against custodial mothers to drop custody of their children immediately after learning of their marriage.
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