Contesting Political Boundaries in Contemporary Moroccan Satire

The remarkable political change that Morocco has witnessed since the death of King Hassan II in 1999 and the succession of his son, Mohammed VI, has contributed to the development of Moroccan satire, due to the margin of freedom granted by the new regime. As a result of this political opening, satire considerably gains visibility as a recent phenomenon in the socio-political scene of Morocco, moving from the shadow of privacy and the clandestine to the spotlight of quasi-permissiveness where satirists tackle issues that had been, not long ago, censored or strictly prohibited. In this chapter, I will demonstrate how the contemporary Moroccan satirical press contributes to shifting political boundaries and initiating debate on highly sensitive political matters, and thus serves to redefine the limits of the permissible in the Moroccan press.