Morocco Appoints Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as Its First Woman Prime Minister
King Mohammed VI appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as Morocco's Prime Minister on 29 September 2026, making her the first woman to head the government in the kingdom's history and only the third woman to serve as prime minister anywhere in the Arab world. Born in Marrakesh in 1976, she is the city's mayor — the first woman to hold that post, from 2009 — and served as urban planning minister. She leads the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), which won 97 of 395 seats in the parliamentary election, unseating the National Rally of Independents (RNI) that had led the previous government.
Morocco's capital is Rabat and its currency is the Moroccan dirham | Morocco is a constitutional monarchy; King Mohammed VI has reigned since 1999 | Morocco rejoined the African Union in 2017 after a 33-year absence