2009: Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri becomes Marrakech’s first woman mayor

On 22 June 2009, aged 33, Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri was elected President of Marrakech City Council by 54 votes to 35. A lawyer and a founding member of the Authenticity and Modernity Party, she became the first woman to lead the Ochre City, and the second woman mayor in Morocco’s history.

June 2009: a landmark election

Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri’s political commitment began in 2008 with the Movement for All Democrats, followed by the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), of which she is a founding member. A lawyer registered with the Marrakech Bar since 2005 and specialising in land and real-estate law, she stood in the communal elections of 12 June 2009 and won a seat on the municipal council.

On 22 June, the city council elected her as its president. Before her, only one woman had served as a mayor in Morocco: Asmaa Chaâbi, in Essaouira. Right after the vote, she shared her state of mind with AFP:

“I am honored to lead Marrakech city hall, I hope to be able to measure up to this new challenge.”

Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, speaking to AFP after her election, Marrakech, 22 June 2009 (English as published by Al Arabiya)

At the head of a 96-member council, she pledged to spare no effort to propose, through dialogue and consultation, reasonable and workable alternatives on the city’s major issues.

A hands-on mayor, stronger finances

Elected to Parliament in 2011, she sat in the House of Representatives while remaining mayor. Her style remained one of proximity, close to residents and their daily concerns. In January 2013, TIME magazine published a profile of her, in which she reflected on how her election had been received:

“People were surprised to see a young woman like me elected. I realized people were hungry for change.”

Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, interview with TIME, Marrakech, published January 2013

In the same interview, she explained that she still went into the neighbourhoods to meet residents, and stressed the need to make good use of the hours after school for the city’s young people.

The city’s accounts reflect the same attention to day-to-day management. In January 2014, she told Médias24 that the city budget had doubled in four years and that the council was running a surplus of 150 million dirhams.

2014: the “Marrakech, City of Permanent Renewal” programme

On 6 January 2014, during Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri’s first term, His Majesty King Mohammed VI launched in Marrakech the programme “Marrakech, Cité du renouveau permanent” (Marrakech, City of Permanent Renewal), with 6.3 billion dirhams for 2014-2017. As President of the Urban Commune, she addressed the King at the ceremony.

The programme is built around five pillars:

• urban integration: 2.25 billion dirhams;
• urban mobility: 1.22 billion dirhams;
• cultural heritage: 1 billion dirhams;
• environment and human development: 1.26 billion dirhams;
• good governance.

It provides for two hospitals, two health centres, 18 schools and six swimming pools, as well as the restoration of the ramparts and historic gates and a range of heritage and cultural projects. Residents were involved in its preparation: the council held 30 workshops with 1,200 citizens. As she explained at the time, City Hall gave the people of Marrakech a voice in these meetings. Launched during her first term, the programme set out a roadmap for the city, from urban integration and mobility to heritage and the environment.

International recognition, then a return in 2021

The year 2014 also brought international recognition. On 11 March, the World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader, in a class of 214 honourees from 66 countries. On 4 December, Forbes listed her first in “The 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa 2014”, which featured women aged 45 and under.

Both distinctions came during her first term as mayor, which ended in 2015. Re-elected to Parliament in 2016, she returned to lead the city on 17 September 2021, elected with 79 votes for a second term running until 2027. This pioneering path is part of a series of firsts, up to her appointment on 29 September 2026 as the first woman to head a government in Morocco’s history.