Rabat - A Moroccan Minister says that speaking in Arabic in public causes her fever.
Rabat – A Moroccan Minister says that speaking in Arabic in public causes her fever.
Minister Delegate in Charge of Environment Hakima El Haite said that speaking in Arabic makes her body rise in temperature.
Speaking during a press conference in Skhirat, near the capital Rabat on Tuesday, the Minister replied in French to journalists’ questions, and tried to evade answering in Arabic.
“Maybe I should reply in Arabic,” the Minister asked the journalist. The journalist said “yes, if it is possible.”
“I will answer in Arabic, although when I speak it, it causes me fever,” the Minister said.
Haiti is not the only Moroccan Minister in the Benkirane government to refuse responding to journalists’ questions in Arabic. Minister of Education and vocational training Rachid Belmokhtar told France24 Arabic journalists that he does not speak Arabic.
Many Moroccans took to social media to criticize El Haite’s comments, saying that by evading answering in Arabic, the Minister is in fact insulting the “language of the constitution.”