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"I'm not a chandelier": El Mansouri challenges women's domestic role

Morocco's first female prime minister invokes working widows and divorced mothers as she responds to conservative lawmakers in parliament.

Channel: RaiNews ·

ItalyStory of October 29, 2026Trari Newsroom

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"Non sono un lampadario", la risposta in aula della premier marocchina

The chandelier comparison has a history. A report from Italy's Rai News 24 pairs Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri's forceful parliamentary response with footage of former Moroccan prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane describing women as chandeliers illuminating their homes.

El Mansouri rejects that image of women's place in society. Speaking at the parliamentary podium as lawmakers applaud, she presents herself instead as a person with reason, conscience, convictions and a struggle to pursue.

The exchange takes place during debate on her new government's program. According to the report, a proposal by her centrist Authenticity and Modernity Party, known as PAM, to pause proceedings for prayer prompted members of the Islamist Justice and Development Party, or PJD, to challenge her on questions of morality. She responds by questioning their authority to decide who is Muslim and who is not.

El Mansouri became Morocco's first female prime minister after King Mohammed VI appointed her in September. Previously mayor of Marrakesh, she now faces this confrontation at the head of the North African country's government.

The report then returns to Benkirane's remarks from 2014, when he was prime minister, before setting out El Mansouri's practical objection to confining women to the home: some widows must work to support their children, while some divorced women receive no financial support from their former husbands.

The closing footage shows her response circulating internationally on social media, including with English subtitles. Its central point is not simply that she refuses a decorative role, but that the domestic ideal she challenges does not account for the lives of women who must earn a living.