Female students break silence about sex scandals in Moroccan universities

Moroccan student Nadia at a press conference in Casablanca.

AFP

Student Nadia got rid of the feeling of being a victim since she managed to break the silence about being sexually blackmailed by one of her professors, she says, in one of the many similar scandals that erupted recently in Moroccan universities.

The young woman says confidently, "I was a victim when I remained silent (...) I am no longer like that," stressing that she spoke to the media after hesitation, not to influence the judiciary, "but just to tell any other victim that she should not remain silent, as there are laws that protect us."

"These practices must be put to an end," she added firmly.

A year ago, this 24-year-old student and her colleague were expelled from the Faculty of Law in the city of Settat, near Casablanca, for cheating in an exam.

But she asserts that the decision was in retaliation, "after we refused to submit to sexual blackmail" from one of the professors.

However, she did not resort to the judiciary, as is the case with the majority of victims of sexual assaults in general in Morocco.

Fortunately for her, the case erupted months later in September, after local media published WhatsApp conversations and testimonies of female students, accusing professors in this college of harassing or blackmailing them in exchange for generosity in awarding them points.

The "weakest link" -

In addition to the negative provisions that often prevent victims of sexual assaults from resorting to justice, human rights activists refer to the "fear of reprisals" that may threaten the student's academic path, which is the "weakest link" in this type of sexual assault, although According to activist Mohammed Al-Amari, who supports Nadia and her colleague.

However, other female students found on social media an outlet to break the silence about their exposure to similar cases, through anonymous testimonies in response to an appeal made on her Instagram page by activist Sarah Benmoussa, who specializes in defending women's rights.

Benmoussa says that immediately after the launch of the initiative late last year, she received "about thirty testimonies from female students in several cities and even women who graduated some time ago, but they wanted to finally reveal what they were exposed to," stressing that she hopes that the scandal will widen.

It states that it only published testimonials that were accompanied by evidence.

Thanks to one of those testimonies of a student at the National School of Commerce and Management in Oujda (East), an investigation committee of the Ministry of Higher Education revealed the "involvement" of a university professor in blackmailing and harassing a female student.

It decided to arrest him and dismiss a number of officials, while investigating accusations against other professors.

But without opening after any prosecution in the file.

A week later, the Public Prosecution decided to prosecute another university professor at the King Fahd School of Translation in Tangiers (North), who was placed in pretrial detention pending a similar case, according to Aisha Kallaa, the plaintiff's lawyer.

The trial of four university professors in the Settat case continues on Monday, facing serious charges including “incitement to immorality”, “discrimination on the basis of gender” and “violence against women”, while another professor of primary school was convicted a week ago and sentenced to two years in prison, in a separate trial.

Kallaa, who heads the Association for the Defense of Victims of Sexual Assault, adds in a recent symposium on the topic, "We also heard that there were about 70 complaints at the University of Tetouan, but the administration did not act."

She appealed to the Public Prosecution Office to investigate any complaints of this kind, asking, "Why is this silence? For whose benefit?"

"Ignoring complaints" -

The National Council for Human Rights (official) expressed in a statement "it is surprising that the complaints of female students are ignored by a number of university institutions' administrations and that they are not taken with the necessary seriousness."

After the deputy dean of the Faculty of Law in Settat decided today to return Nadia and her colleague to classes, the student notes with a sigh that the college administration "did not even listen to me" when she was dismissed a year ago.

And she warned of the danger of "pressures, threats and temptations that the victims or their families are subjected to to give up prosecutions."

In addition to the widespread solidarity with the victims and saluting their ability to break the silence, several women's and human rights associations stressed the need to protect their educational path and facilitate their contact with the judiciary.

For its part, the Ministry of Higher Education announced the opening of green lines and listening cells in universities to enable victims or witnesses to report any harassment or extortion.

Minister Abdel Latif Mirawi also confirmed in a recent television interview, "zero tolerance" for any complaint, stressing that the matter "is related to a small minority of professors."

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