Fouzia El Bayed | |
---|---|
فوزية البيض | |
Member of the Moroccan Parliament | |
In office 2011–2016 | |
Personal details | |
Nationality | Moroccan |
Political party | Constitutional Union |
Fouzia El Bayed (also Elbayed) is a Moroccan women's rights advocate, a former member of the Parliament of Morocco belonging to the Constitutional Union party, a member of the Human Rights Committee of Liberal International, and the first president of the Morocco chapter of the International Network of Liberal Women. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic coast of the Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a population of about 3.71 million in the urban area, and over 4.27 million in Greater Casablanca, making it the most populous city in the Maghreb region, and the eighth-largest in the Arab world.
Mohammed VI is King of Morocco. A member of the 'Alawi dynasty, he acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999, upon the death of his father, King Hassan II.
Morocco became a highly repressive country under the absolute monarchy of King Hassan II, and continues to be considered repressive under the reign of King Mohammed VI, though the latter has instituted some reforms. Dozens of journalists, artists, and ordinary citizens are regularly sentenced to lengthy prison sentences for exercising basic rights enjoyed elsewhere in the world, such as freedom of the press, protesting the government, or criticizing government officials. Morocco heavily restricts basic human rights, such as freedom of speech, the right to assembly, and the right to criticize officials. Moroccans also feel the pressures of inflation within the country, such as the lack of basic services like healthcare, clean water, and the difficulty of parents to access quality education for their children. While there have been a handful of reforms that have been generally welcomed internationally, most Moroccans feel this is insufficient, and continue to be unhappy with the trajectory of the country under the policies of King Mohammed VI, despite his transition of the government to an ostensible constitutional monarchy. Under his father, King Hassan II, Morocco had one of the worst human rights records in Africa and the world, especially during the time period known as the "Years Of Lead", which lasted from the early 1960s until the late 1980s; it was a period in the country's history that was known for the brutal repression of political dissent and opposition, that involved wide-scale arrests, arbitrary detention, lengthy imprisonment, and even killings of political opponents. Currently, Morocco continues to face some of these issues, as well as other human rights problems, such as poor prison conditions, the mistreatment of women and the LGBT community, and the widespread use of torture by police. Despite the considerable improvements made in the last several years under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, who has rolled back some of his father's harshest decrees, repression of political dissidence, and torture of citizens by officials, is still commonplace in Morocco today.
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Irreligion in Morocco is relatively uncommon, in the country. While a 2015 poll of about 1000 Moroccans by Gallup International found that 4% of respondents said they were "not religious", and 1% reported being a "convinced atheist", while 93% said they were religious
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Amina Bouayach is a Moroccan human rights activist. Since December 2018, Bouayach has served as the president of the Moroccan National Human Rights Council. In this role, she affirmed in 2019 that there are no "political prisoners in Morocco."
Fatiha Mohamed Taher Mejjati is a Moroccan jihadist. She is the widow of Karim Mejjati, co-founder of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group and member of Al-Qaeda. Karim Mejjati is suspected of planning the 2003 Casablanca bombings and the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
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