ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the major sources of public patriarchy and their impact on the main social changes in Morocco from precolonial times, to the 2004 law reform, to the present. The term authority refers to a complex abstract concept with sociological and psychological components. Islam was introduced to North Africa by Musa Ibn Nusayr and his warriors in the seventh century. The newcomers brought with them an already well-entrenched Arab–Islamic patriarchy. Modern scholars have identified four major traits that differentiate the most salient characteristics of traditional Berber society from Arab society: segmentarianism, cephalousness, kinship, and egalitarianism. The precolonial era spans the centuries that followed the coming of Islam to Morocco, from the eighth to the beginning of the twentieth centuries. The French colonization of Morocco was officially established by the so-called Traite de Fes, signed on March 30, 1912, and lasting until November 18, 1956.
