By Zakia Abdennebi
RABAT, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Moroccan women are certain to win at least 10 percent of parliament seats in polls on Friday, but the kingdom needs to deepen reforms to advance equality in the male-dominated politics, activists say.
Some analysts say the 2002 reform may have actually done more harm than good by encouraging complacency among a masculine elite that is keen to improve Morocco's image abroad without pushing for rapid change of the underlying realities.
"We still have a long road ahead, even though women have done a lot of work in the assembly," said Khadija Rubbah, an official of the Moroccan Women's Democratic Association.
"We should boost women's parliamentary role, but the mentality of men still rules in parties and in parliament."
The association wants an immediate move to guarantee women a third of seats in parliament, with an eventual goal of half.
Increased participation by women is seen as crucial to the gradual liberalisation of the tradition-bound political system and gain more rights for women in the workplace and at home.
Just under half of the country's 30 million people are illiterate, leaving many vulnerable to being abused by those in authority or manipulated by religious extremists, campaigners say.
Asmaa Ouazzani, 38-year-old secretary, said: "It's unjust that women are not represented sufficiently. Women are better than men at running economic and social questions therefore are better placed to address social problems."
KING ENCOURAGES
The 2002 reform, encouraged by reformist King Mohammed, was a major change. It created a women-only national list of 30 seats in the lower house of parliament. The other 295 seats in the assembly are freely electable in a local list system and tend to be dominated by men.
As a result the number of women lawmakers went up to 35compared to the two seats they held in the previous assembly.
The women MPs have spoken out about unemployment among youth and health. But in practice assembly debates have tended to be dominated by men due to numerical superiority and an assumption by some male MPs that they are more experienced than women.
In elections, too, Moroccans are used to seeing a male face on election posters.
Malika Assemi, a poet and politician, said the reform was a key first step but more needed to be done. "Unfortunately women's parliamentary role has not been encouraged by public opinion and party politicians," she said.
Parliament member Bassima Haqawi said: "Women have changed the stagnant image parliament had in the mind of Moroccans. But in these 2007 elections, women have been excluded from the local lists.
"This distinction between national and local lists should not continue. I think that the national list has played its role and parties should give more chance to women."
King Mohammed has worked hard on women's rights. In 2004 he sponsored a law that gave women equal status to men, shared family rights and the right to start divorce proceedings and separate from their husband after six months.
Before, divorce was a right for a man to exercise whenever he wished. The minimum marrying age for women was raised to 18 from 15 and polygamy was made harder to practice.
But as far as women's political role is concerned, Morocco remains behind Tunisia, the Arab world's most progressive nation in women's rights.
More than a fifth of Tunisia's lower house of parliament are women and it has two women ministers and five junior ministers. Morocco has one woman minister and one junior minister.
