By Youssef Sourgo
Morocco World News
Casablanca, July 16, 2013
Raouia, the 12-year old Moroccan schoolgirl allegedly offended by El Ouafa last October, was among 7 girls awarded with the UN Special Envoy for Global Education’s Youth Courage Award during the Malala Day ceremony, held last Friday, July 12 at the United Nations headquarters in New York in the presence of the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon and former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education.
Seven girls were awarded for standing courageously and perseveringly against the odds impeding their education. Some were awarded for standing with firm determination against patriarchy and female oppression, others for transcending their physical impairment to harness their intellectual capabilities, all for the sake of having an education.
Raouia, was awarded for saying “no” to degrading statement allegedly uttered by the Moroccan National Education minister, Mohammed El Ouafa.
Her staying at school in spite of the psychological trauma El Ouafa’s statement had caused her her is what UN’s Malala Day organizers saw as a promising act of courage, way ahead of Raouia’s age and remarkably worthy of recognition and celebration.
El Ouafa’s name was brought up during the ceremony along with his alleged notorious statement to the Moroccan schoolgirl: “Your time would be better spent looking for a man.”
The Moroccan minister’s alleged statement has now echoed internationally, reportedly considered as one more manifestation of oppression against children, and positing a huge question mark on Moroccan national education and the place of children in it.