Saturday, February 27, 2021

Published/Broadcast Stories

In Morocco, illegitimate children struggle for rights

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by LAUREN KOPCHICK, photos by RACHEL WOOLF

This article was published in Thomson Reuters on April 2, 2015. Read it HERE.

SALE, Morocco – From 1-1/2-year-old Marwa to 10-year-old Abdelaziz, Aziza Mohammed Kanzi’s youngest children are just like any other group of energetic siblings. But according to the Moroccan government they do not exist, as they are illegitimate and lack basic documents.

Sitting in a darkened, one-room shack with a tin roof, Kanzi keeps an eye on Khadija, 9, who prefers to enter through a hole in the corner of the roof rather than the front door, where 6-year-old Sifeddine is quietly slipping out.

Another shore: Morocco’s child migrants

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by ZOE HU; photos by ELOISE SCHIEFERDECKER

This article was published in Al Jazeera on Jan. 30, 2015. Read it HERE.

Tangier, Morocco – Saber first decided that he wanted to live in Spain when he was 10 years old. Hoping for a better life on another shore, he began to think of migration and of leaving his family behind in Morocco.

Now 13, rosy-cheeked and rustling in a thin yellow windbreaker, he stands with his friends at a stone lookout nestled high in Tangier’s medina, watching the sprawling ferry port across the street.

Morocco’s young entrepreneurs face barriers

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by HANNAH NORMAN

This article was published Al Jazeera on Dec. 27, 2014 . Read it HERE.

Morocco – Ali Aaouine had no job but one big dream; to start a rental car company in this town near the historic city of Fez.

In 2011, the 30-year-old joined a US-supported government programme called Moukawalati or “My Small Business”. This initiative was designed to help young Moroccans write business plans and get low interest loans.

Despite completing the programme and receiving a certificate, Aaouine couldn’t get a loan because of a lack of credit and assets.

Underage Moroccan girls married off with judges’ consent

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This story appeared in the Global Post. Read it HERE.

Hannah Rehak July 21, 2014

The Moroccan legal code forbids girls under age 18 to marry, but exceptions are granted most of the time. Enlarge The daughter of Rachida Diani, who helps her mom around the house in Rabat, Morocco. She is bubbly, but shy. Unlike her brothers, she rarely leaves the house to play outside. (William Matsuda/GlobalPost)

RABAT, Morocco — Salima Dakani has a bruised right hand, two children, and nowhere to sleep tonight.

She is only 19, but she bears the weight of a woman who says she has spent years tortured by a man addicted to drugs and violence, a man chosen for her by parents who believed marriage was the best option for their daughter, an alternative to a life of poverty.

Morocco’s Children of the Moon Suffer in the Dark of Poor Health Care

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by FRANCINE KRIEGER

This article was published by Global Health Hub on June 25, 2014.

MOROCCO – Mounir Yakdone died at 7 years old in pursuit of an education. His parents warned that the walk to school would continue to kill him, but the one-eyed boy painted with skin tumors felt he had nothing to lose.

Nozha Chkoundi and Mohammed Yakdone had taken their son Mounir to a public hospital in Casablanca when he was 3 years old. They were concerned about the freckles that multiplied on his skin with each passing day.

Tips To Sort Out The Truth In ‘Cause Marketing’

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By SERENITY BOLT

This article was published by Zester Daily on May 12, 2014.

Liisa VonEnde, a dental hygienist from Vermont, pauses in the checkout line at Whole Foods Market and considers the last-minute temptations: local chocolate, exotic licorice, obscure brands of gum. Finally she tosses a 2 Degrees cherry almond energy bar into her cart. Why that one? This particular bar helped feed a hungry child. These days, “cause marketing” — an idea that for many began with Paul Newman’s salad dressing — has spread to everything from shoes to eyeglasses, with small specialty companies combining flashy graphics with philanthropy to sell their products.

Deficit pushes Morocco to cut subsidies

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By ISHAN THAKORE

This article was published by Al Jazeera on May 02, 2014.

Rabat – Ahmed Dabachi’s heavy blue coat is stained with soot as he lugs a 25-pound butane canister from inside his dark shop to a customer in Rabat.

This is the fuel that many Moroccans depend on for cooking and also often for heating. The government heavily subsidizes the cost for Dabachi and also for his customers. He sells canisters for 42 dirhams or $5.04, but they actually trade for $14.50 on the commodities market.

Dabachi is wary of any but the slightest price increases, knowing they would be bad for him but even worse for families who rely on his products.

Do Human Evolution and Islam Conflict in the Classroom?

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By SADIA KHATRI

This article was published on April 01, 2014 by Al Fanar Media, an online publication that covers higher education in the Arab world. It was presented there under an agreement with The Chronicle. 

Rabat, Morocco—Hanging outside of Professor Touria Benazzour’s office is a cut out of a magazine portrait of Charles Darwin.

Benazzour put it up when she began teaching human evolution 25 years ago, one of the first professors to introduce the sensitive and controversial topic in a Moroccan classroom. Today, Benazzour teaches in the Master’s degree program at Mohammad V University, the capital’s oldest higher-education public institution.

Snail Soup? Camel Spleen? It’s Morocco’s Fab Street Food

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By SERENITY BOLT

This story was published by Zester Daily on March 3, 2014.

FEZ, Morocco– We’ve all heard the warnings that travelers should avoid street food. But doing so means missing the real food culture — the simple, fresh delicacies prepared for locals. With a little common sense, it’s easy to leave your fear of the unknown (or of getting sick) behind and reap one of the greatest rewards of travel.

Moroccan culture buzzes in the ancient medina of Fez al-Bali, the world’s largest car-free area, where Gail Leonard, a British ex-pat, offers street food tasting tours through her company, Plan-It Fez.

In Morocco, Immigrants’ Children Face Educational Barriers

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This story was published by Al Fanar Media on February 7, 2014

By IMANI BRAMMER

TANGIER, Morocco—A 10-year-old boy is standing in front of the whiteboard across from a broken-down bed covered with old Moroccan style multi-colored blankets. In his teacher’s bedroom-turned-classroom, with dim, orange tinted lighting, eroding paint and pen-inked graffiti walls, Chris David, an undocumented migrant from Nigeria, stands erect, arms firmly to his side, head up and recites a poem.

Last August, near the Plaza de Toro square in Tangier in northern Morocco, on Tetouan road, down a steep hill and through an alleyway of gravel, John Churchill, a migrant, created the Neighborhood Education Center.

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