The Moroccan civil society has expressed its outrage over an official high school exam that included a question implying that a woman's sole purpose is to marry and bear children. This incident has prompted a strong backlash from numerous intellectuals, politicians, and NGOs, who have condemned the perpetuation of sexist stereotypes.
The contentious question was part of the written expression test for French, administered to first-year high school students in the eastern region of the country on Monday. The question, which began circulating on social media and local news outlets, asked students: "Some people believe that a woman is made only to marry and have children. Do you share this opinion?"
The controversy quickly escalated from classrooms to the public sphere after Omar Hyani, a council member from the Democratic Left Federation (FGD) in Rabat, shared an image of the exam on the platform X, accompanied by an ironic query: "Is a woman a human being?" This sparked further discussions and concerns regarding the implications of such questions on young minds.
The Initiative for the Protection of Women's Rights (IPDF) also released a statement on its Facebook account, expressing its "condemnation and deep concern" regarding the exam content. The NGO emphasized that such official tests are not neutral and called on the Ministry of Education to provide urgent clarifications regarding the criteria for educational assessments.
Furthermore, the association warned that consistently linking young girls to specific domestic or reproductive roles limits their horizons and influences their future choices. They reminded the public that "Moroccan girls are full citizens, capable of contributing to various fields of scientific, economic, cultural, and political life." In conjunction with this statement, a letter signed by prominent figures from the academic, political, media, and cultural sectors was made public to denounce the situation and criticize the test's content.
As reported by diariodenavarra.es.
