80% of Moroccans embrace polygamy as marriage age rises

Polygamy is still strongly supported by a large proportion of Moroccan society, according to a recent study on the status of the Moroccan family conducted by the Center for Family Studies and Research in Values and Law.

Approximately 80% of Moroccan society favors polygamy within the parameters of the Family Code, revealed the study’s findings, which were made public on Saturday at a press conference in Casablanca. 

Only 16% of Moroccans are opposed to retaining polygamy within the Code’s requirements. 

The remaining portion favored preserving polygamy, with the condition that it must be used with restraint and take into account rare circumstances such as cases of sickness and infertility.

In the same vein, the study’s respondents stated that polygamy is subject to numerous limitations and barriers. Financial eligibility is the most prevalent of these, with a rate of almost 53%, followed by the housing issue with a rate of over 10%, and physical and psychological eligibility with a rate of 8.3%.

In regards to the reasons and motives for women accepting polygamy, the study found that one of the most prevalent reasons is the delay in the age of marriage, at a rate of 36%, followed by the issue of fragility and poverty, at a rate of approximately 26.6%. 

Meanwhile, 17% of the respondents attributed the reason for their acceptance to love, while 14.5% considered their main motive to be “the youth’s inability to bear the burdens of marriage”.

Regarding men embracing polygamy, 33.7% of them said that they do so because they have the financial resources to support more than one family. 

Among the reasons is their desire to have children at a rate of 28%, the desire to reach “manhood” at a rate of 15.8%, and a desire for love at a rate of 15%.

The study did note several aspects of breaking the law in order to practice polygamy without a legal justification. 

This “makes the issue of reconsidering the legal requirements regulating the threat an urgent matter,” confirmed the same study. 

Examples include falsifying certificates of celibacy, engaging in illegal marriages by changing the residence address, or getting married using “Al Fatiha” in order for it to be religiously correct, and then tracing the lineage after pregnancy.

The study monitored cases in which a woman in a state of pregnancy was brought before the law, in order to obtain approval for polygamy, as well as, sometimes resorting to concealing the civil status books in order to engage in polygamous marriages

The source also showed that more women than men are fully aware of the Family Code, and that the top four reasons for accessing it are civil (39%), personal (20.7%), academic (almost the same percentage), and familial (19.2%).

In terms of keeping track of the Family Code revisions, 42.7% of respondents are completely aware of them, compared to more than 15% who aren’t. 

Additionally, the study’s participants think that the groups most interested in developing the Family Code and outlining its obligations are lawyers, politicians, and social actors.