Moroccans mark International Youth Day by voicing concerns

2009-08-14

Young Moroccans seized the occasion of International Youth Day to reflect on the serious challenges they continue to face.

By Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat — 14/08/09

[Abdelhak Senna/AFP/Getty Images] Young Moroccans say they do not seek charity, only a "good life" free of oppression.

No major celebrations marked International Youth Day in Morocco on Wednesday (August 12th), but that did not stop young people from reflecting on concerns ranging from unemployment to marginalisation.

"Celebrating the international day is not the important thing," Hind, a student, said of the annual UN event meant to spotlight youth issues worldwide. "The important thing is to take care of the youth, who are suffering from the neglect of the state, which is not justifiable because the youth are the base of progress."

Other young people echoed her concern, including Abdullah, an unemployed youth.

Abdullah, an unemployed young man in Rabat, told Magharebia, "We're not asking for charity from the government."

"One of our rights is for everyone to live a good life, including the youth, who have been oppressed," he added.

Ismail Hamraoui, president of the Moroccan Youth Forum, also pinned part of the responsibility for young Moroccans' woes on the state.

"Moroccan youth suffer from several clear infrastructural crises that require the re-building and restructuring of the youth sector, whether at the level of public policies or the implementation of those polices," he told Magharebia. "[T]he state has a duty to rehabilitate young people, because they are living through what we call, in Moroccan slang, social hekra ("contempt") in the sense of marginalisation and exclusion in all its forms."

"It's the duty of the state to try to change its static mentality, as it deals with youth, [who experience] inferiority and discrimination," added Hamraoui. "I want to reaffirm that Moroccan youth are not minors and … are the key to development and real democracy."

"The thing that we notice in Morocco is the aversion of young people to everything, as a result of the bad conditions they are living under, the president of the Association of Youth for Youth, Emad Aqa, told Magharebia.

"However, Morocco's young people are still a vital category of people that only lacks opportunities to work," said Aqa, whose organization was one of the few to set up meetings to mark International Youth Day.

"Once this is available, they'll achieve remarkable successes, and the proof of that is the Moroccan youth who are living abroad," added the president of the group, which advocates the creation of a Youth Parliament to address some of Morocco's issues.

The president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, Khadija Ryadi, told Magharebia, "The condition of young people ranges from unemployment and oppression by the authorities to taking the "death boats" [unsafe means of illegally emigrating overseas] in search of a better life."

"Young people are still engaged in struggle and they have a presence in the framework of [Moroccan] associations," she added, noting that youth were still "marginalized by the state even in the policies in which they are supposed to have the greatest share, such as recreation, innovation and sports."

For his part, Yacine Bezzaz, general coordinator of Rabat Law School's Student Club for Human Rights, told Magharebia, "We didn’t celebrate International Youth Day because the biggest category of people concerned with the matter, that is, the students, is on holiday."

"One of the most important problems facing Moroccan youth today is the failure of the educational system," said Bezzaz. "This is in addition to other social problems, such as the absence of facilities and the weakness of the health system. In terms of the economy, there is a lack of the right to work."

"The way to improve the condition of Moroccan youth lies in the coordination of [their] efforts, organization within the framework of associations and political parties, and expression of their demands and aspirations within these organizations," said Bezzaz. "At the same time, the state has a duty to listen to the demands of youth, as they represent the biggest group in Morocco and are a great resource that the authorities have to make use of."

Bezzaz said Morocco's youth fall into four categories: a group that does not care about what is going on around them because they are engrossed in consuming banned substances; another group that includes those attracted to extremism; another that cares only about their personal interests and not at all about the interests of the country; and a final category that embraces a few young people who try hard to introduce change and make progress.

"As long as we are working inside associations and political parties, we have hopes of changing conditions the way we want to, within the framework of prosperity and progress of youth and the rest of the Moroccan people," added Bezzaz.