The proposed law, related to the completion of Article 11 of the Noble Decree No. 1.58.250 related to the enactment of the Moroccan nationality law, stipulates that “adequate knowledge of Arabic and Amazigh or one of them” is considered one of the other conditions for naturalization stipulated in the Noble Decree.
The law proposal was submitted by the Independent Team for Unity and Equality (participant), with the aim of “compatibility with the requirements of the Noble Dahir enacting the Moroccan Nationality Law, especially Article 11 of it, with the provisions of the constitution, which made Amazigh an official language of the state alongside the Arabic language.”
The Kingdom’s constitution in 2011 recognized the constitutionality of the Amazigh language alongside the Arabic language, while the Moroccan government is working to activate the official character of the Amazigh language in the areas of public life, as it has allocated a financial fund of 1 billion dirhams for this purpose in the year 2025.
Proper download of the provisions of the Constitution
The head of the Independent Team for Unity and Equality, Noureddine Madian, confirmed that the law proposal submitted by the “Al-Mizan” party team in the first chamber of parliament to review the conditions for obtaining Moroccan nationality came “for the proper implementation of the provisions of the constitution that made Tamazight an official language of the state.”
In his statement to “Sky News Arabia”, Mudyan explained that the Istiqlal Party deputies “noted that the aforementioned article of the Nationality Law included the Arabic language only as a condition for foreigners to obtain Moroccan nationality,” despite the passage of more than 10 years since the Amazigh language was constitutionalized in the Kingdom. .
The head of the Istiqlal Team for Unity and Equality in the House of Representatives said: “We have rectified this matter to give Amazigh its true constitutional meaning, and to ensure its conformity with this new constitutional trend.”
A very important legislative acquisition
The Amazigh writer, Rachid al-Hahhi, believes that the condition of knowledge of Amazigh, added to the nationality law in the approved proposal, is “a positive step in the right direction to harmonize national legislation with constitutional requirements, especially the constitutional status of Amazigh as an official language of the country.”
Al-Hahi continued, in his interview with “Sky News Arabia”, that “the requirement of mastery of the Amazigh language should push towards thinking that mastery of the Amazigh language is also one of the national assets for Moroccans.”
The author of the book “Amazighness and Authority” considers that “this is a very important acquisition pending the review of many of the requirements of other legislation and laws in order to conform to the official status of Amazigh in the constitution, especially with regard to its preamble and Chapter Five of it, which stipulates that the Amazigh language is an official language alongside Arabic, in addition to the requirements of the regulatory law to activate the official character of the Amazigh language in the various aspects of public life.
A step that enhances the status of Amazigh
In the same direction, the head of the “Izrfan” organization (meaning laws in Amazigh), Hammou Hasnawi, “welcomes these decisions and laws that strengthen the status of identity and the Amazigh language in the system of national laws, although they are not binding.”
Hasnawi told Sky News Arabia: “Although the new proposal does not bear a mandatory nature in the text of this law, as it focuses on learning only one of the official languages and not both, we welcome this amendment to the law and consider it a positive step.”
The head of the Amazigh non-governmental human rights organization added that the developments “are consistent with the content of the constitution, which requires that the official language of the Amazigh language be respected in all areas of the public life of the Moroccan people,” calling for “the learning of official languages to be compulsory and on the same level of equality.”
Ordinary procedure long overdue
For his part, the Amazigh actor, Mustafa Omoush, believes that what was stated in the proposal is “a normal procedure to download the official character of the Amazigh language in the Moroccan constitution, and to activate the laws regulating that.”
Amoush considered, in his contact with “Sky News Arabia”, that “this step was long overdue, as was a set of laws, similar to the regulatory law to activate the official character of the Amazigh language, which was issued in the Official Gazette eight years after the constitution of the Amazigh language.”
The Amazigh actor called for “reconsidering a set of laws in the Kingdom, in order to be consistent with the constitutional status of the Amazigh language, and with the law regulating how to include the Amazigh language in all fields of public life, including the field of legislation and laws, in order to achieve an actual and real download of the official status of the Amazigh language.”
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