There is an irresistible temptation, whenever a woman reaches an office previously reserved for men, to declare history made and move briskly on.

UN Women did what international organisations are expected to do when Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri was appointed Morocco’s first woman head of government this week. It congratulated her, called it a historic moment for women’s leadership and looked forward to working with the new government on the rights of women and girls.

And yet the last part of that message is considerably more interesting than the first.

El Mansouri has indeed made history. King Mohammed VI appointed her prime minister after her Authenticity and Modernity Party emerged as the largest party in the September 23 parliamentary election, winning 97 of 395 seats.

Morocco has broken a political barrier. Pakistan did so nearly four decades ago. The more difficult question is what such breakthroughs actually change for women who never come anywhere near power.

Morocco has broken a political barrier. Pakistan did so nearly four decades ago. The more difficult question is what such breakthroughs actually change for women who never come anywhere near power.

She is Morocco’s first woman prime minister and the third individual woman to head a government in the Arab world. Tunisia got there first with Najla Bouden in 2021 and then appointed a second woman, Sarra Zaafrani Zenzri, in 2025. Morocco is therefore only the second Arab country to cross the threshold.

For a region routinely presented as uniquely allergic to female political authority, the Muslim world has a habit of producing unicorns. Pakistan elected Benazir Bhutto prime minister in 1988. She reached the office before Germany had Angela Merkel, before Italy had Giorgia Meloni and decades before Japan appointed its first woman prime minister in 2025. The United States has still never had a woman president.

It certainly does not prove that Pakistan in 1988 was a better place to be a woman than the United States, Germany or Italy. However, it does prove that the presence of a woman at the summit is a remarkably unreliable shorthand for the condition of women beneath........

© Daily Times