The pioneers of social media circulated videos showing an Arab young man trying to save Arabs and Africans by allowing them to enter a train to get out of Ukraine towards Slovakia, after the Ukrainian police insisted on removing non-whites from the train, and first allowing the whites to board the train to escape from the Russian bombing, the matter Which observers considered racial discrimination against different races.
The video showed the Moroccan young man who stood in front of the train carriage door, calling on Arab girls, then young men and people with brown skin, to enter the train first, and his behavior sparked controversy on the communication sites.
Other separate videos showed attempts by Ukrainian police and civilians to prevent black people from boarding the train to flee Ukraine, and a fight broke out between a number of them and white people.
Another video shows the Moroccan youth's reaction after he was prevented from boarding a non-white train to flee Ukraine.
sudden escape
Al Jazeera Net contacted the Moroccan young man, Mahdi Ben Dedouh, who insisted on saving Arabs and Africans, a student from Agadir studying in Ukraine at Kharkiv University in the field of communication sciences.
Mahdi fled with those fleeing the Russian bombing, a long journey that the young man made with his fellow Moroccan students, between walking at one time and searching for a car to take them with the remaining money at other times.
Mahdi only came out with his personal papers and proof of his scholarship to Ukraine, a small bag containing some dry foods and sweets to ward off the cold, and a heavy coat whose green color became an icon of a young man who wanted peace in the face of war.
Weapon vs Hate
In his speech to Al Jazeera Net, Mahdi confirms that what happened in the train incident is a picture of racial discrimination, as the Arabs were pushed from the train bound for Slovakia, and the right to board it was granted to Ukrainians only.
This situation made Mahdi jump to the front of the train carriage after the Ukrainian policeman closed it, calling for Arab girls to get up, and after them Arab and African youths who were humiliated over several days by the border police, and several reports indicated the unfair treatment of African and white refugees from Europeans on the other hand.
"It makes me so happy to see blond-haired and blue-eyed Europeans being killed." What do you think of the statement of the former Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General? # Video pic.twitter.com/yFEzyJoJSg
- Al Jazeera Channel (@AJArabic) February 27, 2022
Despite the position issued by the Moroccan young man, he sparked controversy on social media platforms between a supporter of his heroism and a critic of him, which led him to respond to the criticism with a video message broadcast via the short stories feature through the Instagram photo application.
Mahdi said, "This is what any Arab man who saw what we saw would do. They were preventing our sisters and brothers from getting on the train. I did not look for myself, it was all about the girls."
From a safe place in Slovakia, Mahdi Bin Didoh spoke to Al Jazeera Net, stressing that he was surprised by the spread of the video and that his family in Morocco did not know anything about him for the past period, and the spread of the clip was a reason to reassure them about it.
Didoh added, "Some accounts circulated on social media that I am Egyptian, but I am Moroccan, and certainly - whether I was an Egyptian, Moroccan or Gulf - the reaction would have been one, as this is manhood as we learned it."