Published On: Sat, Apr 27th, 2013

Morocco Lifts a Ban On Amazigh Names

 

 

By Mohammed Amine Qasserros

Morocco News Tribune

Kenitra, Morocco|Moroccan Interior Minister Mohand Laenser announced at the House of Representatives that the ministry has sent a memorandum instructing Moroccan civil registry services across the kingdom to start accepting applications for registration with Amazigh names.

The Interior Ministry sources said that the number of requests for changing names has reached more than a thousand requests.

“The number of applications received for registering births with Amazigh names has reached 2156 applications, and only 1631 applications were presented to the Supreme Committee for Civil Status,” Sabah Moroccan daily newspaper reported

Moroccan government refused two years ago to issue birth certificates with Berber names under the pretext that they contradict Moroccan identity.

The Moroccan Ministry of Interior through civil registry rejected some specific Berber names considered in violation of law 99-37 that determines names fit for males and females.


 The names list was was distributed in Moroccan embassies and consulates abroad.

This move was seen by Human rights organizations part of an exclusion policy against the mother culture of Morocco.

A number of activists protested against such racism and marginalization adopted by the government against the them.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/mohamed.abouhou Mohamed Abouhou

    Fair enough
    The photo of the article is very stereotypical. Why don`t you use a picture of a modern Amazigh student, woman, official..
    Why do you relate us to very modest and primitive styles? What about the rest of Arabized 85% of pure ADN Berber marker Moroccans