Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal: family code reforms compared, and what they delivered for women

Three countries, three family codes, one shared problem: promises that do not become law. In Morocco, King Mohammed VI approved 139 proposals to revise the 2004 Family Code on 23 December 2024, but as of October 2026 no bill has reached Parliament [1][8]. Courts there still received about 16,000 to 17,000 requests to marry minors in 2024 and authorised more than 10,000 [9][11]. In Tunisia, the 1956 Personal Status Code turned 70 in August 2026, yet the women’s rights group Aswat Nissa counted at least 30 femicides in 2025, up from 25 in 2023 [20][19]. In Senegal, the 1972 Family Code still sets the marriage age for girls at 16 and names the husband head of the family, while 30% of women aged 20 to 24 were married before 18 [32][38][40].

Content note: this article mentions killings of women by their partners.

Why family codes matter

A family code decides who can marry and at what age, who heads the household, who signs for a child’s passport, who keeps the children after divorce and who inherits. These rules shape a woman’s daily life more than almost any other law. They also decide whether she can leave a violent marriage without losing her home or her children.

Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal are often cited as leaders in their regions. Tunisia banned polygamy in 1956. Morocco’s 2004 Moudawana was hailed as a breakthrough. Senegal’s 1972 code was one of the first unified family codes in West Africa. But each code still keeps a core of male authority. And in each country, the reform process of the past five years has stalled, slowed or come under attack.

The Maputo Protocol (2003) sets the standard RFLD uses. Article 6 requires a minimum marriage age of 18 and equal rights in marriage. Tunisia ratified the Protocol in 2018 and Senegal in 2004. Morocco has not signed it [13][29][31].

Morocco: 139 proposals, no law yet

The 2004 Family Code (Law 70-03) set the marriage age at 18 for both sexes, but Article 20 lets a family judge authorise the marriage of a minor. The code allows polygamy with judicial authorisation, gives the father legal guardianship of children (Article 233) and keeps unequal inheritance shares [13][2]. Courts received more than 20,000 requests for a second marriage between 2017 and 2021, and granted about 39% of them, according to the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSPJ) [12].

The reform was launched in the Throne Speech of July 2022 [1]. In September 2023, the King asked the government to revise the code [2][8]. A body made up of the executive, the judiciary, the Higher Council of Ulema and the national human rights institution held consultations and submitted its proposals [6]. On 28 June 2024, the King referred some questions to the Higher Council of Ulema for a religious opinion [7].

On 24 December 2024, the government presented the outcome: 139 proposed amendments across the code’s seven books [3][6]. The main points were [3][5]:

• Marriage age of 18, with an exception at 17 only under strict conditions.
• A wife may ban polygamy in the marriage contract; without such a clause, polygamy would be allowed only in exceptional cases, such as infertility, with a judge’s approval.
• Shared legal guardianship during and after marriage; a divorced mother keeps custody even if she remarries.
• A wife’s domestic work recognised as a contribution to marital wealth.
• The marital home excluded from the estate when a spouse dies; parents may give property to daughters during their lifetime.

The Higher Council of Ulema rejected three changes as fixed by religious texts: DNA testing to establish paternity, abolishing taasib (the rule that gives male relatives priority over daughters when there is no son) and inheritance between Muslims and non-Muslims [5]. Women’s groups said the package kept the code’s patriarchal logic. The Democratic Association of Moroccan Women called it “not the radical reform we were expecting,” and Kif Mama Kif Baba criticised the infertility exception for polygamy [4].

Then the process slowed. In March 2026, the reform was described as stalled, with no draft made public and misinformation filling the gap [2]. In August 2026, the Minister of Justice spoke of “last adjustments” [1]. On 26 September 2026 the ministry confirmed the bill would move to the next legislature, which opened on 9 October 2026. The bill has never been adopted by the Government Council or filed in Parliament [8]. Until it is, the 2004 code remains the only law that applies [1][8].

Tunisia: a pioneer code under pressure

Tunisia’s Personal Status Code (CSP) banned polygamy, required both spouses’ consent and introduced judicial divorce [28]. Since 2007 the marriage age is 18 for both sexes, but a judge may authorise younger marriages for serious reasons. Article 23 still makes the husband head of the household, and inheritance follows unequal shares [29].

Organic Law 2017-58 on violence against women came into force in 2018. It created specialised police units and protection orders, and removed the rule that let a rapist escape prosecution by marrying his victim [29][16]. But it does not fund shelters, and its fine for economic violence is capped at 2,000 dinars [15]. Marital rape is not named in the law [29].

The 2018 inheritance equality bill, proposed by President Beji Caid Essebsi, reached Parliament in 2019 and stalled after his death that July. President Kais Saied called the debate “false” in 2020 and said the Quran settles the question. His 2022 constitution gives religion a larger role [14].

Senegal: a 1972 code still waiting

Senegal’s Family Code (Law 72-61) sets the marriage age at 16 for girls and 18 for boys, with a judge able to lower it “for serious reasons” (Article 111) [32]. Article 152 makes the husband head of the family, Article 153 lets him choose the home, and Articles 277 and following give the father “paternal power” during marriage [38][33]. Article 196 bars a mother from seeking to establish paternity [34]. The marriage certificate records whether the husband chose monogamy or a limit on polygamy, so the option is his (Article 65) [32]. Muslim inheritance rules give a daughter half a son’s share [31].

In practice, a mother may need the father’s signature for her child’s passport or papers, even when he lives apart or refuses without reason [36][35].

Cases and events, 2021 to 2026

2021

• 9 May, Le Kef, Tunisia: Refka Cherni, 26, was shot dead by her husband, a member of the security forces, two days after reporting him for beating and strangling her. No protection order was issued [16]. He was later sentenced to 30 years, raised to 40 years on appeal on 5 March 2024 [17].
• Morocco: requests for polygamous marriage peaked at 4,854 [12].

2022

• June, Geneva: the CEDAW Committee urged Morocco to set 18 as the marriage age with no exception [13].
• July, Morocco: the Throne Speech launched the family code reform [1].
• July and August, Tunisia: a new constitution gave religion a larger role; on Women’s Day President Saied spoke of socio-economic rights only [14][15].
• November, Morocco: an AU mission urged ratification of the Maputo Protocol [13].

2023

• February, Tunisia: before CEDAW, the government said Law 58 needs updating [29].
• September, Morocco: royal instruction to revise the Moudawana [2].
• November, Tunisia: a Ministry of Women report found recorded femicides rose from 6 in 2018 to 23 in 2023 [18].
• Senegal: the 2023 DHS found 30% of women married before 18 and 9% before 15 [40].

2024

• 1 March, Senegal: a ministerial council recommended a committee to propose Family Code revisions; it has not been set up [37].
• 20 March, Dakar: jurists and MP Khady Dieye called for reform of Article 277 on paternal power [33].
• 9 May, Tunis: Aswat Nissa and a Kef association reported 25 femicides in 2023 [19].
• 28 June, Morocco: referral to the Higher Council of Ulema [7].
• 10 December, Dakar: Amnesty International Senegal called for harmonising Articles 111, 152, 153 and 196 with ratified treaties [34].
• 23–24 December, Morocco: 139 proposals approved and presented [3][6].

2025

• 8 March, Senegal: MP Marème Mbacké asked the Justice Minister in writing to revise Article 277 [35].
• May, Tunisia: bills to move mutual-consent divorce from judges to notaries drew opposition from the National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT), which said such divorces are often imposed on one spouse [23][24].
• 24 October, Tunisia: the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD) was suspended for 30 days and closed its listening centres for women survivors in Tunis, Sfax, Sousse and Kairouan [26][25].
• Late 2025, Tunisia: MP Abdessattar Zarai proposed legalising polygamy; the Minister of Women called it a “red line” [27].
• December, Morocco: the Justice Minister told Parliament child marriage cases had fallen from 26,298 in 2017 to 8,955 in 2024 [10]; rights groups called for repeal of Article 20 [11].
• December, Senegal: the Luy Jot Jotna campaign demanded Family Code reform and recognition of femicide; on 31 December President Bassirou Diomaye Faye used the word “féminicide” publicly [37][30].

2026

• 27 January, Senegal: the Association of Senegalese Women Jurists called for replacing paternal power with joint parental authority and recognising women’s unpaid work [38].
• March, Morocco: the reform was reported stalled [2].
• August, Tunisia: the CSP turned 70; Aswat Nissa reported 30 femicides and 5 attempted killings in 2025 [20][28].
• September, Senegal: a second national action plan on gender-based violence was validated, without explicit mention of femicide [30].
• 26 September–October, Morocco: the bill was pushed to the new legislature; the CSPJ reported 10,691 authorised child marriages in 2024 [8][9].

The data

Child marriage in Morocco. Figures differ by source, and readers should treat them with care. The public prosecutor counted 19,848 requests in 2022, 15,319 in 2023 and 16,960 in 2024 [11]. The CSPJ counted 20,192 requests and 12,629 authorisations in 2023, and 16,755 requests and 10,691 authorisations in 2024, an approval rate of about 63% [9]. The Justice Minister gave a lower figure of 8,955 for 2024 [10]. Whatever the source, thousands of girls are still married each year through a legal exception.

Femicide in Tunisia. There is no official annual count. Aswat Nissa’s press-based monitoring gives 25 in 2023 and 30 in 2025 [19][20]. Sources disagree on 2024: 25 according to one report, 29 according to another [20][21]. The ministry’s own study, based on a sample, gave 23 for 2023 [18]. All are minimums.

Femicide in Senegal. No public body publishes a count. Activists recorded at least 17 or 18 femicides in 2025 and 13 reported cases from January to October 2026 [30][39].

Comparing the three codes

Sources: [3][5][8][13][29][31][32][38][39].

What the laws deliver, and the gaps

Each code delivered something real. Tunisia’s ban on polygamy has held for 70 years and its 2017 law is one of the region’s most complete on paper. Morocco’s 2004 reform raised the marriage age and created family courts, and the 2024 proposals would give mothers guardianship and keep custody after remarriage. Senegal’s code gave women a legal framework in 1972 that many neighbours lacked.

But the gaps are wide:

• Exceptions swallow the rule. In Morocco, judges still approve most requests to marry minors [9]. Senegal’s age of 16 directly breaches Article 6 of the Maputo Protocol [39].
• Male headship remains. All three codes keep the husband or father as the default authority.
• Inheritance is untouched. None of the three has adopted equal shares; Morocco’s ulema closed the door on ending taasib [5].
• Laws without services. Tunisia’s Law 58 lacks funded shelters [15], and the suspension of the ATFD cut access to some of the few existing centres [26].
• Political will. Morocco’s bill has waited nearly two years; Senegal’s 2024 committee was never formed [8][37].

What RFLD asks for

1. Morocco: table the Family Code bill in Parliament before the end of 2026, publish the full text, and remove the exception to the age of 18 instead of lowering it to 17.
2. Morocco: sign and ratify the Maputo Protocol without reservations.
3. Tunisia: protect the CSP’s gains, reject any move to legalise polygamy or remove judges from divorce, and fund Law 58: shelters, protection orders and an official femicide count.
4. Tunisia: lift restrictions on women’s rights groups and let survivor services operate without interruption.
5. Senegal: set up the Family Code revision committee recommended in March 2024, with women’s organisations as full members, and raise the marriage age to 18 for girls.
6. Senegal: replace Articles 152 and 277 with shared family and parental authority, and allow mothers to seek paternity.
7. All three: publish annual official data on child marriage, polygamy and femicide, broken down by region.
8. All three: open a national dialogue on equal inheritance, starting with protecting widows’ housing and daughters’ shares.

RFLD tools you can use today

• Check the laws country by country: Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal in our Women’s Rights Laws by Country database.
• Track women in decision-making in Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal on the Women in Leadership Tracker.
• See how each state performs on the Protocol in the Maputo Barometer 2026, and use Lifting the Reservations and Nine states, nine asks for ratification advocacy.
• Read our Femicide in Senegal 2021–2026 report.
• Compare codes across the continent with Legal Equality for Women in Africa and plan submissions with the CEDAW and UPR review calendar.
• Train your team with the Maputo Protocol Training Manual and the free courses of the RFLD Academy and Francophone Academy.
• If you or someone you know faces violence, see Domestic violence in Africa and Get Support.

Closing

The lesson from these three countries is simple. A family code is only as strong as its weakest exception, and a reform is only real once it is law. Morocco has a reform on paper that women cannot yet use. Tunisia has strong laws whose defenders are being pushed back. Senegal has had clear demands for years and no process to answer them. RFLD and its member organisations will keep pressing, in Rabat, Tunis and Dakar, for codes that treat women as equal partners in the family, as the Maputo Protocol requires.

References

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