Dean at Moroccan U Refuses to Hand Graduation Award to Female Student Wearing Keffiyeh
Lior Ben Ari | 17 July 2024 | YNet News
A dean at the University of Casablanca in Morocco caught on video refusing to hand an honors award to a student because she was wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh Palestinian keffiyeh has caused a stir in the Arab world. In the video of the ceremony, the dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Muhammad al-Talbi, is seen asking the student to remove the keffiyeh, and after she refused he left the stage and another person presented her with the award in his place. Officials in Morocco claimed that al-Talbi "harmed the general feeling of support of the Moroccan people for the Palestinian issue."
The incident took place in the wake dozens of weekly demonstrations across Morocco to express solidarity with the Palestinians amid the war in Gaza. Major cities including Tangier, Casablanca and Rabat have hosted major protests in which demonstrators wear keffiyehs and wave Palestinian flags. Morocco signed a normalization deal with Israel under the Abraham Accords in January 2021.
The event was widely covered in the Arab media, including by Qatari television station Al-Jazeera, as well as on social media networks. One surfer called the dean's position unacceptable, and criticized the moment when al-Talbi reached for the keffiyeh on the student's shoulder as "an inappropriate act." Another commented that he "doesn't understand what the dean's problem is with the beautiful keffiyeh" and others called for him to be fired. Sources stated that "he will finish in his position, but it is not clear if it is because of the end of his term or because of the incident."….