Almost all of the testimonials come from former students. Since July 2021, 200 accusations of harassment and sexual assault have been reported in universities and colleges in Morocco. If the facts denounced are old, it is because to speak at the time of the facts means to attract the wrath and the reprisals of the incriminated professor, but also the general disapproval.
“You have to suffer in silence, you have to change channels … That’s the perception of Mr. Everybody, explains Me Khadija El Amrani, lawyer in Casablanca. Public opinion receives this type of complaint very badly, and we always want to say: it is she who seduced this person. It’s horrible, as a perception. “
This #MeTooUniv in Morocco was able to emerge thanks to the Article 490 and 7achak collectives, and thanks to investigative work by two journalists from the magazine As is. “We felt that something was going on that we weren’t talking about. A few things had gone out, but it had never given rise to a movement or a liberation of speech.”, says Leila Chik, one of the two journalists who worked for months to collect and verify the testimonies, but also to confront the authors and their persons in charge. “When digging, we realized that this was quite a widespread phenomenon.”
Scandal “fellatio against validation” at the ENCG Oujda: the professor denies the setting up of a listening cellhttps: //t.co/oxVKQuPC8G pic.twitter.com/M72Ya3sdfI
– TelQuel (@TelQuelOfficiel) December 28, 2021
With the onset of movement, things are starting to change. Even if it remains at a forced march. University presidents, who until now did not see the point of making inquiries, had to change their minds in the face of the outcry in society. Indeed, the professors accused “put catastrophic notes that send [les étudiantes] in catching up, they do everything to make them fail their year. Even they get them kicked out of the establishment, when they are protected by the administration “, asserts Fanny Haza, the magazine’s second journalist As is who investigated the matter. “He there was a real protection of the professors by the establishments, which wanted to preserve their reputation and the professors rather than the students “, she denounces.
“We especially realized the impunity of these teachers”
#MeTooUniv also constrained the Minister of Higher Education, Abdellatif Miraoui, to send commissions investigation emergency. Teachers have also been fired and arrested, and principals have had to resign.
At the same time, universities have set up listening committees and hotlines available to students, who can therefore express themselves more today, even if the risk of being stigmatized is still very present.