Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, 50, is a lawyer, former housing minister and the mayor of Marrakech. On September 29, King Mohammed VI appointed her Morocco’s first woman prime minister, making her only the second woman to lead a government in the Arab world after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden.

She co-leads the centre-right Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), founded in 2008 as a counterweight to the Islamist movement. PAM won 97 of 395 seats in the September 23 legislative election, 31 more than the next-largest party, but short of a majority, so she must negotiate a coalition.

Under Morocco’s constitutional monarchy, the king appoints the prime minister from the party winning the most seats, while retaining sweeping powers over foreign policy, defence and other key portfolios. El Mansouri will now submit a cabinet list for the king’s approval.

Her government faces youth unemployment, rising living costs and inequality. It will also oversee the final stages of a $20-billion push to prepare for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which Morocco co-hosts with Portugal and Spain.