“We no longer want an immigration that is inflicted (on us) but an immigration that is chosen, this is the founding principle of the new immigration policy I advocate.”
~ Nicolas Sarkozy
Aicha's death wouldn't have attracted much attention -it wouldn't have caused so much horror and dismay if it couldn't have been possible, if not to save her life, at least to assist her and ease her pain, and if the Moroccan authorities had delivered on the duties that every reasonable citizen expects from his or her government, and if the French authorities had acted in respect for a Moroccan life. Both authorities have connived in silence and indifference and left Aicha dying in pain and despair. For more than two years French authorities refused to grant Aicha Mokhtari a visa to fly to France and get treatment and dismissed her repeated appeals while the Moroccan authorities looked the other way. What kind of government treats its citizens like this?
Aicha Mokhtari was not asking for a favor from anybody, she was suffering in dignity, struggling against a terrible disease, that eventually took her life. To make sure that Aicha's death will not be in vain, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) is organizing a campaign[Fr] to denounce French inhumane immigration policies towards Moroccans and to protest against the deadly silence of the Moroccan government. Our lives worth better than a French Visa!
Please feel free to circulate this poster or join AMDH efforts (on Facebook [Fr] and other platforms) to denounce human rights abuses in Morocco.
BIO
Hi! My name is Hisham Almiraat. I’m from Morocco. I’m a medical doctor by trade and occasional blogger.
I quit smoking after medical school. Now hooked on caffein and Twitter.
An ultra-naïve humanist, I deeply mistrust religion and power and I spend my time daydreaming of a secular, liberal democracy at home.
I'm passionate about freedom of expression and thought which I consider to be the most fundamental of our rights.
In pursuit of defending these rights I am and was involved with a couple of projects:
I'm the former advocacy director at Global Voices Online and co-founder of Mamfakinch.com and TalkMorocco.net -- award-wining platforms that advocate for and encourage freedom of expression.
I am the recent founder of the Moroccan Association for Digital Rights.
I try photography from time to time and do some graphic design and artwork, though I still have a lot to learn in that department... and in everything else for that matter.
You can email me at hisham [at] riseup [dot] net
.. or, if you feel like it, follow me here.
.. or, if you feel like it, follow me here.
