Ahmed Assid (; born July 14, 1961) is a
Moroccan Berber activist, a professor of philosophy, a poet, and a political activist, well known for being an active secularist.
[Ahmed Assid, un militante de los ‘hombres libres’ del Magreb]
, El Pais, May 9, 2013
Assid is a secularist, and is well known for his criticism of Muslim fundamentalists and
Arabization
Arabization or Arabicization () is a sociology, sociological process of cultural change in which a non-Arab society becomes Arabs, Arab, meaning it either directly adopts or becomes strongly influenced by the Arabic, Arabic language, Arab cultu ...
. In 2013, Assid received death threats several times, and three years later he was on the black list of
ISIS
Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...
and their main target among Moroccan figures.
In 1980, he continued his higher education in Rabat in the Department of Philosophy and Sociology. He graduated from the Faculty of Education Sciences as a Professor of Philosophy in 1988.
Sexual misconduct allegations
In December 2014, Berber activist and writer
Malika Mezzane claimed that Ahmed Assid had been harassing her for years.
She subsequently revealed a customary "marriage contract" written and signed by Assid, and stated, “He destroyed my house and my life because of the alleged passion he had for me … and was one of the reasons behind my divorce.”
After coming under pressure and receiving threats for having denounced Assid, she made public a video of him in her house, as well as a number of photos of them together. Assid refused to answer the allegations and stated that he “
idnot want to discuss individuals' personal life on media.”
References
1961 births
Living people
Berber activists
Berber poets
Critics of Islam
Critics of Islamism
Moroccan activists
Moroccan critics of religions
People from Taroudannt
Shilha people
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