What Does Morocco’s First Woman Leader Actually Mean for the Country?

Foreign Policy · Ilhem Rachidi · 2026-11-05 18:00 UTC

Fatima Ezzahra Mansouri will have limited power—but her new role is more than just symbolically important.

Fatima Ezzahra Mansouri will have limited power—but her new role is more than just symbolically important.

On Sept. 29, King Mohammed VI named Fatima Ezzahra Mansouri as Morocco’s head of government, making the country the second in the Arab world after Tunisia to appoint a woman to lead its executive branch. Soon, images of Mansouri meeting with the king, both of them dressed in traditional outfits of the same light-blue shade, circulated around the world. It’s a moment that would have been unimaginable not so long ago.

Mansouri’s appointment brought excitement to an otherwise uneventful election that was largely ignored by many Moroccans. The vote, which took place on Sept. 23, had an abstention rate of almost 62 percent, the country’s highest in almost 20 years. The low turnout was the culmination of decades-long apathy toward elections, with citizens feeling increasingly disconnected from Morocco’s political parties.

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