This chapter looks at the interactions between the women’s movement, the king, the Salafis, Islamists, and the Islamist party, Party for Justice and Development (PJD), and the role the interactions between these actors played in bringing about gender reforms in Morocco. It shows how the symbolic uses of women’s rights made women and women’s rights a focal point of the contestations between the palace and the parties and a key instrument in the struggle against religious extremism. The chapter shows how the PJD changed its position regarding women’s rights for reasons of political expediency. It explores the role of the women’s movement in the middle of this unfolding contest. The chapter thus takes us through the main elements of the hypotheses outlined in Chapter 1 as they apply to Morocco.

This chapter shows how women became the focal point of the tensions between the Islamists and those who opposed extremism both symbolically and existentially during the Black Decade. It shows how in the post-civil war period women, their bodies, and ultimately women’s rights became a centerpiece of the regime’s fight against fundamentalism. Legal reform, which included an emphasis on political rights, was part of a strategy against extremism, which also had a negotiated and military dimension to it. In more recent years, the struggle has shifted to the cultural arena as women, including young women, push back against Islamist proscriptions on women’s dress. As a consequence, Algeria has seen the demise of militarized and political Islamist influences.