HIBAPRESS – Rabat
Activist Mayssa Salama al-Naji sparked widespread controversy on social media after announcing that she has not fasted during Ramadan for ten years, and criticizing what she described as "the law criminalizing public eating during Ramadan."
Mayssa explained in a post published on her Facebook account that, despite her personal choice, she is keen to avoid conflict with her surroundings for the sake of coexistence and societal harmony, adding that she respects everyone despite the differences in positions.
Mayssa's post received widespread interaction between supporters who considered her stance an expression of individual freedom, and opponents who saw it as an infringement on religious and societal constants.
Activists considered that Mayssa's statement brought back to the forefront the debate about the limits of individual freedom and its relationship to public order, between those who consider the matter a personal matter and those who see it as an infringement on the identity of society and its religious values.
In this regard, the Moroccan researcher and writer Ahmed Assid considered that the wave of anger that followed al-Naji's statement was "unjustified," calling on critics to review their positions.
Assid considered that the activist expressed her personal choice "honestly and clearly," without calling on others to follow her example or demand the abolition of a religious rite.
Assid added that the controversy reflects, in part, a broader discussion about the image of Moroccan society, considering that Moroccans are not a homogeneous religious bloc, but a diverse society in its beliefs, united by national belonging, pointing out that the discussion also raises the issue of the Penal Code issued in 1962, in light of the social transformations that Morocco has witnessed during the past decades.
