In Morocco, it is now possible for unmarried couples to sleep together in hotels, according to a measure announced by the Minister of Justice. However, the Moroccan penal code still prohibits sexual intercourse out of wedlock.
Unmarried Moroccan couples can now book a hotel room without showing their marriage certificate. Moreover, single women are also no longer prohibited from renting a hotel room in their city of residence. Hotel owners have been applying these two restrictions for decades.
The driving force behind the change is Abdellatif Ouahbi, Morocco’s Minister of Justice, who, in a session in the upper house of Parliament on May 21, said that the requirement for couples to show a marriage certificate was an invasion of privacy and illegal.
“Isn’t it a violation of their privacy? What is the legal basis for this demand? claimed Ouahbi. If the law doesn’t explicitly require it, then requiring it from couples is illegal!”
The rule imposed on and enforced by hoteliers had no legal basis; it was transmitted only orally. Consequently, the regulation was rescinded in the same way as it was transmitted, with some hoteliers reporting that they had received a call from the police to inform them of the change in regulations. In Agadir, the intelligence services visited each hotel to inform staff.
“Those who ask for these documents must be prosecuted,” added the minister to convince the most reluctant or conservative hoteliers.
The bans were intended to prevent sexual relations outside marriage, which are punishable by imprisonment in Morocco under controversial article 490 of the penal code.
Abdellatif Ouahbi’s decision sparked such controversy, according to Hespress, that the Minister of Justice was urgently summoned by majority parliamentary groups to explain himself at a yet-to-be-determined session of the commission on justice, legislation, and human rights.
A conservative/progressive duality
On social media, Moroccan internet users appear divided. The most conservative voices lament that lifting the ban threatens public moral order by enabling young people to have sex outside of marriage and facilitating prostitution.
“He’s in favor of lewdness; he should resign,” argues an internaut on X about the minister. The minister can also be criticized for modernizing the country by westernizing it without respecting the conservatism of the country.
And yet, relationships outside marriage are more common in this conservative Muslim society. A study by the Menassat Research Center shows that 60% of Moroccans personally know single people who have had sexual relations.
Progressives argue that the requirement to present a marriage certificate was a rule applied only to Moroccans and rarely to tourists, noting that there are numerous ways to circumvent the rule and share the same room regardless.
Airbnb and other accommodation rental sites do not systematically check marriage contracts, for example.
Beyond their personal and cultural convictions, hotel owners had a financial interest in imposing the unspoken rule. Indeed, another strategy used by unmarried couples is to simply enter the hotel separately, book two different rooms, and then discreetly meet up in one of them.
Where conservatives denounce depravity, Minister Ouahbi calls for greater individual freedom. In Ouahbi’s view, the conditions are ripe for a change not only in legislation but also in the mentality of Moroccan society.
“We have a historic opportunity because we have a King who understands the evolution of things and a government that is moving in that direction. And we have to move forward,” said Ouahbi.
Full equality between men and women has been declared by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, who has been in power since 1999, but its application still leaves much to be desired, according to the media Discovery Morocco.
The family code, the Moudawana, was revised in 2004 to include, among other things, a woman’s right to divorce. A new revision of this text is currently underway, and its content, as yet unknown, is due to be voted on by Parliament in July.
