According to Médias24, on Monday, January 14, 2019, a Member of Moroccan Parliament Ibtissam Azzaoui sent a written letter in neo-Tifinagh to Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit regarding the “refusal of Amazigh first names in civil status registers.”
Ibtissam Azzaoui addressed the legislative institution considered to not necessarily enforce the 2011 Constitution. She says, “Until today, the Amazigh radio broadcasts the Parliament’s sessions of oral questions in Arabic.” The deputies’ questions being exclusively in Arabic are justified by the “absence of translators, which is absurd.”
Azzaoui sought to address “the phenomenon of refusal of the registration of Amazigh first names in the registers of civil status.”
“Normally, Amazigh first names can be registered in civil status registers, and Moroccan legislation does not go against that, but there is still a lot of work to be done by the Minister of Justice.” She says certain civil status officers choose individually not to do it.
“The problem is that some registrars sometimes do not understand the meaning of a given name and therefore they refuse it, and these are redundant cases that the Ministry concerned must absolutely face.”
A dictionary of Amazigh first names is available from the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture.
Here is Ibtissam Azzaoui’s written question translated in full:
“To the Minister of the Interior,
Under the supervision of the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Subject: A written question on the refusal of the registration of Amazigh first names in the registers of civil status
Your Excellency the Minister,
We have received several complaints about the refusal of the registration of Amazigh first names in the registers of civil status. In this regard, we ask you about the causes of this refusal and the measures taken to guarantee the completion of a national list of Amazigh names.
Please accept the expression of my deepest respect.”
End of letter.
