In 1991, this was manifested in concrete political action as l’Union de l’Action Féminine (UAF), a women's group within one of Morocco's Marxist–Leninist political parties and consisting mainly of professional, middle class women, collected one million signatures on a petition calling for Mudawana reform and presented it to the Prime Minister. This move demonstrated significant political support behind the idea of reform, and framed the issue more as one of politics and human rights than religion (indicated in part by the delivery of the petition to the prime minister, the nominal head of the government, as opposed to the king of Morocco, who is also a spiritual leader). Their primary aims were to change the discriminatory elements of the code, including polygamy and the principle that a husband has ultimate authority over his wife. The proposed reforms drew not only on principles derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also on the Islamic principles of equality, justice, and tolerance. In response, King Hassan II created a commission (which he chaired) composed of 21 religious scholars – only one of them female – and a representative of the Royal Court for the purpose of reforming the Mudawana according to the Islamic tradition of ijtihad. The events were not without controversy, however, generating both a counter-petition as well as a fatwa directed against the women's demands.
