Hennou Allali: Morocco’s Proudly Amazigh Woman Activist

Rabat – More than one century after the first wave of women’s activism erupted in England, the fight for women’s rights made significant gains, but we have a long journey ahead to close all those gaps threatening the equitable society we all hope for.

In a spirit of “let’s count our blessings,” Morocco World News is celebrating international women’s day this year by spotlighting 11 Moroccan women, who are fighting the good fight on many fronts, further proving that “Empowering Women Is Smart Economics,” as the International Monetary Fund phrases it.

The woman spotlighted in this article is a perfect example of how empowering women can steer society in the right direction. Morocco has been for years attempting to bring down high illiteracy rates among rural youngsters, especially young girls, all across Morocco.

However, devising effective measures to solve rural illiteracy rates stems from a thorough understanding of the underlying issue, making women with the same background as Allali uniquely positioned to carry out effective activism.

After a long career as a medical professional, Allali started a boarding school for young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds with the unique aim of bringing them closer to schools. “I realized that living eight or ten kilometers from schools is the primary reason behind parents’ reluctance to send their children to schools, especially girls,” Allali told MWN.

“When it comes to their sons, parents often send them to live with relatives who happen to live close to public school, but unfortunately they don’t do the same for girls. It’s not that they oppose the idea of educating girls, it simply lies beyond the reach of their perception” Allali lamented.

Becoming the first medical practitioner to come out of the Oualmas region in 1971, Allali says that being a doctor in Morocco’s 1970s was challenging on many levels, none of which are directly related to being a woman working in a male-dominated field.

“Back then, Morocco had no higher education institutions. Moroccans who wanted to become doctors or engineers all had to immigrate, go to France,” explained Allali.

“Right after Morocco claimed independence, all of us studying in France came back home, we wanted to help build our country. Almost none of us chose to stay behind,” the medical practitioner proudly asserted.

Allali considers contributing to Morocco’s labor force in the 1970s her national duty. “France didn’t need me back then, my county did. Our hospitals were mostly managed by French doctors, there were scarcely any Moroccan doctors.”

“After completing my professional and family duties as a mother, I went back to my home Oulmas and I saw the region with a new eye,” the doctor said explaining the motive behind starting the Ili boarding school, Ili is an Amazigh word for ‘my daughter.’ “I started thinking of how I can bring values to my community, and that’s how I got the idea to start a boarding school for young girls,” the doctor said as she reflected on her experience.

“I realized that by supporting women, I’d be supporting the whole community.” Allali decided in 2007 that to support women she needed to address the issue of schooling for young girls, employment for mothers without forgetting the community’s elderly women, as caring for them means caring for the region’s cultural heritage.

Despite her humble demeanors, Allali is proudly Amazigh, Moroccan, and Muslim. She spoke at length about the origin of her name Hennou during an interview with MWN, saying that her first name ‘Hennou’ is derived from an Amazigh word that denotes prosperity.

Her inquisitiveness to trace back the origins of names is partly the reason behind her success, she reckoned. “I was always curious about how things work the way they do. Always wanted to discover what laid behind the sky-reaching mountains of Oulmas,” the doctor shared deep in thought.

The highlight of Allali’s career

“When the young girls I first welcomed in 2008 graduated high school, became on their way to pursue academic studies, and obtain degrees they never thought existed before, I felt my heart swilling with joy,” Allali said with a smile on her face.

“After succeeding, those girls will go back home, as I did, and contribute to their communities if just by supporting their families and improving their living conditions,” she said confidently.

Despite the numerous appreciation awards Allali received for her time as a member of Morocco’s national council for doctors, and the national human rights council, the doctor maintains that the thing that brings her most joy is seeing young girls at her boarding school Iliexcel.

“Girls in rural areas often become shepherds at a very young age. When they are 15, it’s them who opt for marriage, because that’s the only future they can ever conceive, when we offer them an alternative route at Ili, they claim it, and it swells my heart with joy to witness their journey and take part in it” Allali explained.

Allali’s thoughts on Morocco’s progress in the women’s right

Morocco has made tremendous progress on the women’s rights front, and only people who were contemporary to pre-Mudawana Morocco understand the depth of the progress, stated Allali referring to Morocco’s adoption of the family code in 2004.

Moroccan youngsters today cannot perceive a Morocco where women couldn’t even legally represent their children, only men could. They cannot process a society where women didn’t even hold the right to work after marriage unless it was explicitly inked in the matrimony contract, or file a passport without a husband’s written authorization, the doctor pointed out.

The raw reality of husbands divorcing their wives without their knowledge, because they were not under legal obligations to do so, and incidents where women did not even realize that their husbands had second wives, were common occurrences in pre-2004 Morocco, according to Allali.

“The 2004 Mudwana is revolutionary for my generation on many levels. And I don’t say that we’ve made it, we still have a long way to go, but there is no denying the progress,” the doctor concluded.