Pakistan, Oct. 1 -- There is an irresistible temptation, whenever a woman reaches an office previously reserved for men, to declare history made and move briskly on.

UN Women did what international organisations are expected to do when Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri was appointed Morocco's first woman head of government this week. It congratulated her, called it a historic moment for women's leadership and looked forward to working with the new government on the rights of women and girls.

All perfectly true.

And yet the last part of that message is considerably more interesting than the first.

El Mansouri has indeed made history. King Mohammed VI appointed her prime minister after her Authenticity and Modernity Party emerged as the larges...