Fatima Zahra El Mansouri was named Morocco’s first female prime minister Tuesday after her party swept parliamentary elections last week.
A royal decree issued by Morocco’s King Muhammed VI tasked Mansouri with forming a new cabinet, probably a coalition government with other political groups.
A statement issued by her Authenticity and Modernity Party said the appointment marked a milestone in the country and showed the “path Moroccan women have taken within state institutions and positions of political decision-making, culminating in the country’s highest executive office.”
As head of government, Mansouri will be charged with overseeing preparations for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which Morocco is co-hosting along with Spain and Portugal. She also faces wider issues such as unemployment and migration after tens of thousands rushed the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in July.
A lawyer by training, Mansouri had been serving as the country’s housing and urban policy minister as well as mayor of Marrakesh, a major city and popular tourist destination.
Mansouri is only the second woman in the Arab world to lead a government after Najla Bouden in Tunisia. Very few women have reached executive office in the region. In 2006, Syria’s Najah al-Attar became the first Arab woman to serve as her country’s vice president, but the role was largely symbolic with power concentrated with then-dictator Bashar Assad.
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