With support from the University of Richmond
History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Source: Network of Concerned Historians
Historians in the News
10-11-15

Call to help Moroccan historian Maâti Monjib, who has been on hunger strike since 6 October 2015

Dear colleagues,

Moroccan historian Maâti Monjib has been on hunger strike since 6 October 2015: please sign the petition on his behalf here.
Below is a fact sheet. I very much hope that you can sign the petition today.
With best wishes,
Antoon De Baets
(Network of Concerned Historians)

Background

Maâti Monjib is a political historian (University of Mohammed V-Rabat). Born in Morocco, he got his first Ph.D in France (North African politics) and another one in Senegal (African political history). He is a member of the Institut des Études Africaines (IEA; Institute for African Studies) in Rabat and the chairman (since early 2014) of the NGO Freedom Now–Comité pour la protection de la liberté de la presse et d’expression and the Association marocaine  de journalisme  d’investigation (AMJI; Moroccan Association of Investigative Journalism).

A long campaign of harassament and intimidation was waged against him, including threats and defamatory articles in newspapers and on news sites. He founded and directed the Ibn Rochd Center for Studies and Communication in Rabat which trained hundreds of Moroccan journalists in investigative techniques and civic journalism. In December 2014, he shut down the institute after repeated interference from the state. On 31 August 2015, he was detained briefly at the airport when returning from France. He was told that he was under investigation for “endangering state security.” On 14 September 2015, he was interrogated and accused of tarnishing Morocco’s image abroad, using foreign funds to promote a foreign agenda and destabilizing citizens’ allegiance to their institutions. His associates have also been questioned. On 16 September 2015, he went on hunger strike for the first time after being barred from leaving Morocco for a conference in Barcelona. The IEA board refused to give him permission to travel to Norway to attend two academic events related to his expertise. On 6 October 2015, he went on hunger strike to protest against the restrictions against his freedom of movement and his academic freedom.

Maâti Monjib is the author of La Monarchie marocaine et la lutte pour le pouvoir: Hassan II face à l'opposition nationale (The Moroccan Monarchy and the Struggle for Power: Hassan II Facing the National Opposition) (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1992), A Political Biography of Mehdi Ben Barka, with Z. Daoud (Paris: Éditions Michalon, 1996–2000), and editor of Islamists Versus Secularists in Morocco, ed. (Amsterdam: IKV, 2009).

Sources include: Freedom Now, Petition text (11 September 2015); Biographical notes, Codesria and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Paul Schemm “Moroccan Journalist on Hunger Strike, Barred From Leaving,” AP (17 September 2015); Reporters without Borders, “Monarchy’s Red Lines Gag Morocco’s Independent Media” (17 September 2015).