Marital authority, as perceived in contemporary Muslim doctrines and applied in positive Iranian and Moroccan law, is the result of divergent interpretations of Islam. Various schools of thought have contributed, often in contradictory ways, to the evolution of the legal status of married women. The first part of this work deals with contemporary Muslim doctrines, with a precise description of the foundations of marital authority, which, for its defenders, justify maintaining the quality of head of the family and its prerogatives. However, according to the author, these foundations have gradually disappeared in most modern societies in countries where Islam is the majority religion, hence the need to abolish all the legal components of marital authority, so that the law is in accordance with the actual development of society. In the second part, the author examines the positive Iranian and Moroccan rights with regard to marital authority and the place given to the principle of equality between spouses, as recognized by international instruments. In particular, the author highlights the way in which the status of married women has evolved in these two countries, under the influence of conservative or modernist doctrines.
 Authors biography
 After studying law at the University of Tehran, carried out before the 1979 Revolution, Bahieh Agahi-Alaouui resumed her university career in Morocco, where she obtained her license and her graduate degree in private law, in language Arabic, at the Hassan II University in Casablanca. She continued her studies in France at the University of Perpignan where, in June 2008, she successfully defended her doctoral thesis in law. This work is the complete reproduction of this thesis.