The King’s Reach: A Comparative Content Analysis of Women in Moroccan Film Pre and Post Mudawana Reformation

Abstract

The death of the reigning Moroccan king, Hassan II, in 1999 created a significant cultural shift in the years after, which in turn is the basis for the analysis of film that will be reported in the final stage of this study. This content analysis investigates potential changes in Moroccan movies, focusing specifically on the way gender for women is portrayed on screen, which may have been caused by the shift. Using Mudawana (i.e., the event of a rewriting of the Muslim “family law” put forth by the current king, Mohammed VI) as a country-level naturalistic experiment in Morocco, a probability sample of the most viewed films was taken from several years prior to and following the political event. Such a content analysis is supported by theories of media influence (namely, Heuristic Processing Model of Cultivation Effects) and by research on gender in American film to assess whether theoretically meaningful differences in gender portrayals have occurred since the Mudawana reformation. Results are discussed in terms of both similarities and differences with female representation in American cinema, and in terms of future changes that may be likely in Morocco with regard to gender equity and the continued freedom of expression for Moroccan women.