“Informal couples” ordered to get married before February 5

“Informal couples” in Morocco have been ordered to get married before February 5, 2009. Rural inhabitants continue to get married simply by reading the “Fatiha”, the beginning surah of the Koran. According to Aujourd’hui Le Maroc “Unions of this sort are not legally binding and do not follow the country’s marriage laws”. Sources from the Moroccan interior ministry confirm that about 9,000 marriages have not been validated and more than 200, 000 births have not been registered.