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Rabat – Secretary-General of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) Abdelilah Benkirane strongly criticized Minister of Justice Abdellatif Ouahbi for his proposed reforms on “individual freedom,” particularly those related to consensual sexual relations outside of marriage.
The former PJD prime minister directly questioned Ouahbi’s competence, saying that he would have never received him to gain popularity and assume a government position.
“If I had known this would happen, I would have never received him.. to become a minister. I fear I am responsible for this disaster,” expressed Benkirane in frustration.
This is not the first instance of the PJD criticizing Ouahbi’s reforms. In February, the party accused Ouahbi of attempting to incite unrest with his announcement that the country’s Penal Code requires reforms.
The party said it strongly condemns Ouhabi’s attempts to “stir sedition” by adopting “trends” that are against “Islamic and national constants.”
Public debate
Ouahbi has been triggering widespread backlash from conservatives with plans to descriminalize extramarital consensual sexual relations in Morocco.
Morocco criminalizes sexual relations outside of marriage under Article 490 of the Moroccan Penal Code. Under the code, sexual relations outside marriage is prohibited and can be penalized with a prison sentence between one to two years.
Several rights groups have been urging the government to decriminalize extramarital and premarital relations.
Earlier this year in February, a panel of eight people, including politicians, doctors, and lawyers, asked the Moroccan government to decriminalize extramarital relations by publishing a document on fundamental freedoms.
At the same time, several surveys highlighted that the majority of Moroccans oppose sexual relations outside marriage.
A 2020 study by L’Economiste and Sunergia research group found that 88% of Moroccans surveyed are opposed to sex outside of marriage.
Of a sample of 1,000 Moroccans, 79% of respondents personally oppose sex outside of marriage and an additional 9% describe the act as haram, or forbidden by Islamic law.
New reforms
Earlier this year, the Justice Minister said that the new penal Code is “ready and can be presented to the parliament,”
“Regarding sensitive points of this code, such as the possibility of granting more individual freedoms, mutually consensual sexual relations outside marriage, and shared guardianship of children, among others, it is necessary that all the answers to these questions obtain the green light from the government, religious, and parliamentary authorities,” he explained.
Benkirane has been speaking out against the reforms frequently,
A video documenting an exchange between Benkirane and Ouahbi went viral online earlier this year.
“We are going through these conditions and all you could see is consensual extramarital relations,” Bemkirane has been heard saying in the video.
Responding to Benkirane’s remarks, Ouahbi said” consensual is better than the beach incident.”
The beach incident refers to a scandal dating back to August 2016, when two vice presidents of the Unity and Reform Movement Justice were arrested under charges of having extramarital sex in public in a car on the beach of Mansouria.
