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Little Simane, born on November 25, 2000, has no legal name, unregistered by her parents because the town's civil registry will not permit the Amazigh name, instead enforcing that an Arabic name be chosen from the list created under former Minister of the Interior Driss Basri (1981-1999).

In 1997, an amendment was made to the 1933 law, which specified only that children be given a "good" name. The amendment, approved by the Parliament, stipulated that names must be "Moroccan and Arabic." A list was drawn up by the Minister of the Interior, with suggested names of Arab and Muslim origin. However, the Minister could not impose the list since only the Parliament has the legal right. Therefore, the new law has been interpreted differently from city to city. While some civil registries emphasize the "Arabic" name and rule out names not on the aforementioned list, others focus on the "Moroccan" and, therefore, accept the indigenous Amazigh names. In the case of Simane, the local registry employees have refused to recognize anything but an Arabic name as being Moroccan. The case has been taken to the high court, but the latter requests the child's birth record in order to continue with the case. However, the child has no birth record because, as the family lawyer explained to WAAC, her father has refused to register her under a name other than that chosen by him and his wife.

Are Morocco’s people merely subjects of the State and not citizens, with full rights? While on the one hand, Mohammed VI verbally recognizes the Amazigh heritage of the country and promises an institute of Tamazight, on the other, parliament has a law in place that is left to the interpretative whims of town registries, and the very basic and precious human right of parents to name their children as they see fit is taken from them. No head of state, no parliament, no town clerk has the right to prohibit this right.

Morocco, friend of the United States and aspirer to the European Union, is a long ways from recognizing the meaning of human rights. Humans without dignity are unproductive. The five-year amendment needs to be rescinded and the older, wiser law, set in place. Everyone wants a "good" name for their child, but "good" is not exclusive to Arabic names.

Please sign the petition to demand the rights of Simane’s parents to officially register their choice of a name.

Petition unterschreiben:

[URL=http://www.amazighworld.com/Human_rights/Morocco/protest_names_simane12-01_eng.html]Amazigh World, North America, North Africa