Divorcer au Maroc n’est pas toujours une affaire de couple

Abstract

In Morocco, some people who separate claim that they particularly want to leave their spouse because their conjugal and personal life is encroached upon by the interventions of one of their in-laws. These divorces have a “community component”, in the sense of Tönnies’ theory. The individualised “I” of the spouses has to deal with the calls to order coming from the family lines. With marriage, women change, or are supposed to change, their lineage by submitting to the demands of the husband’s family : for example, by stopping their studies or their professional activity. In some couples, one of the spouses finds it hard to put up with the diminished autonomy of their conjugal life. As a result of male domination, this unequal relationship between the husband’s and wife’s lineage can turn into a psychological complaint. Women complain that the husband is too weak psychologically because he does not resist the injunctions of his lineage concerning their marital life style. Thus, some Moroccan divorces arise from a tension between individuals who claim the power to decide on their marital and personal life and a family environment that denies them this.

Keywords

• gender
• family
• divorce
• in-laws
• community
• society