Efforts to reform discriminatory family laws are gaining momentum across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with countries reviewing existing laws, considering legislative proposals or adopting reforms to strengthen women’s rights in marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance.
However, significant barriers are hindering reform and threatening progress, warns the Hurra Coalition, a regional network of leading women’s rights organisations working to achieve equal rights for men and women in family laws across MENA, APO distributed news said.
Women’s and girls’ rights continue to be undermined by discriminatory and contradictory laws, weak implementation of legal protections, and courts that interpret and apply family laws inconsistently.
Organised groups opposed to gender equality are using religious and cultural arguments and claims about upholding traditional “family values” to oppose reform of personal status laws governing family matters, justify discriminatory laws and challenge existing legal protections for women and girls, it reads.
Prominent women’s rights defenders and civil society leaders from the Hurra Coalition met in Hurghada, Egypt, in October 2026 to assess gains and setbacks in family law reform and identify priorities for strengthening women’s legal rights and protections.
The United Nations’ Gender Justice and the Law initiative tracks legislative progress in 17 countries in the Arab region, evaluating 73 indicators across six areas of law. In 2025, the initiative recorded the adoption and amendment of 32 legal texts in 12 countries that contributed to strengthening women’s legal status laws, including family and personal status.
In Egypt, the government approved draft personal status legislation in April 2026 and referred two bills to Parliament in May, proposing reforms to family laws governing Muslims and Christians, it added.
In Morocco, a review of the Moudawana (Family Code) initiated by King Mohammed VI, led to the announcement of over 100 proposed amendments in December 2024.
In Lebanon, civil society organisations and women’s rights advocates have put forward a draft unified civil personal status law seeking to establish a common legal framework governing marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance and other family matters.
During her keynote address at the Hurra meeting, Imen Zahouani Houimel, a gender expert and former Tunisian Minister of Women, Family and Seniors, emphasised that “legal reform is a cumulative process where each phase builds upon previous gains.”
Houimel said, “Political will has been decisive, but it must be sustained by strong institutions, effective implementation, and feminist and human rights advocacy”, warning that legal gains are not irreversible unless safeguarded by strong institutions, public awareness, and continuous mobilisation against waves of rights regression.
In much of the Arab world, family laws span religious, customary, and civil legal systems, with provisions that sometimes overlap or contradict one another. This can create confusion and unequal treatment, as legal protections within a country may vary between women depending on what community they are in.
Women’s rights advocates warn about the growing backlash against gender equality. Beyond blocking family law reform, anti-rights movements are spreading misleading narratives, undermining institutions that uphold human rights and targeting feminist organisations and advocates.
