Bangladesh, Oct. 1 -- Morocco has entered a new political chapter with the appointment of Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as the country's first female prime minister, placing a prominent lawyer and former Marrakech mayor at the center of a difficult coalition-building exercise and a government facing mounting expectations from a young and increasingly demanding population.

King Mohammed VI appointed the 50-year-old politician on September 29 after her Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) emerged as the largest force in Morocco's parliamentary elections. PAM won 97 of the 395 seats in the lower house, leaving Mansouri with the immediate task of assembling a coalition capable of securing a parliamentary majority.

Her appointment is signifi...