Morocco: Celebrating the First Female Mayor of Marrakesh

The Moroccan elections of two weeks ago brought surprising results and were received with mixed reactions, as Hisham pointed out in this post.  One such result was the election of a woman to the position of mayor in Marrakesh for the very first time.  Fatima Zahra Mansouri, who studied law, is only the second woman to ever hold the position in Morocco (Asma Chaâbi, mayor of Essaouira since 2003, was the first).

Bloggers were mostly excited for Mansouri.  Popular blogger The View From Fez announced the news:

A 33-year-old lawyer on Monday became the first woman to be elected mayor of Marrakech, one of Morocco's biggest cities and a key tourist destination.

Fatima Zahra Mansouri outpolled veteran outgoing Mayor Omar Jazouli by 54 votes to 35 in Monday's municipal council vote, becoming the second woman to take a mayoral position in Morocco after Asmaa Chaâbi, mayor of Essaouira.

Maghreb Blog commented as well:

Just some breaking news from Marrakech: The first woman city mayor in Morocco has been voted in the red city's city council meeting today. Fatema Zahra al-Mansouri, a 33 year-old lawyer from the Party of Authenticity and Modernity, will assume the new responsibilities for the next six years, replacing Omar Jazouli who has been at the helm in Marrakech for 12 years. al-Arabiya reports what Sheikh Biyadellah, SG of PAM said: “reflects the image of a modern Morocco.”

The Twittersphere shared reactions to Mansouri's election and the election of a number of other women to council positions.  From Jerusalem:

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Moroccan “tweep” Abdelilah Boukili pointed out that although there have only been two female Moroccan mayors, there are a number of Moroccan women holding lead positions in small towns, by noting:

abdelilah

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