Five distinguished women researchers in the life sciences were named on October 5th as recipients of the 10th annual L’OREAL-UNESCO Awards For Women in Science. The international Life Science Awards Jury, which was presided by Professor Gunter Blobel, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1999, is made up of 18 eminent members of the scientific community. Professor Christian de Duve, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1974, is the Founding President of the Awards.

The new citizenship law follows the 2004 Moudawana (Family Law), which entitles women to a range of civil rights. The minimum marriage age was raised from 15 to 18; women may now wed without the consent of a male wali (marital tutor); polygamy is restricted to cases in which wives, including the new bride, consent by written contracts approved by a judge; and men may no longer unilaterally “repudiate”—divorce—their wives without compensation.