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Who is she ?
About Nadia Yassine
Daughter of the founder of the Moroccan movement AL ADL WAL IHSSAN (Justice and Spirituality Association, hereinafter JSA), Nadia Yassine was born in Casablanca in December of 1958. She went to French-cultural-mission schools for her primary and secondary education, respectively at Paul Cezanne primary School in Rabat, Descartes’s High School in Rabat and Victor Hugo High School in Marrakech. From the latter she earned her high school diploma with distinction in the year of 1977. She next moved to the College of Political Sciences in Fez and got her diploma in the year of 1980.
Like all her family members, she was denied the right to leave the country. She nevertheless continued her education as an autodidact while teaching the French language in private schools for 4 years. Then she had to discontinue her teaching career in order to found and run JSA’s Women’s Department – especially that her father was at his second incarceration (1983-1985).
Her husband, Mr.Abdellah Chibani, was imprisoned in the company of the members of JSA’s Orientation Council for 2 years (1990-1992).
Lecturer and author of numerous articles, she gave many interviews that appeared in such newspapers as Le Monde , El Pais , Ashark Al Awsat, Der Spiegel, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, The Times, US News...and such websites as IslamOnLine , Oumma.com...etc
Her first book “Toutes voile dehors” [English translation, “Full Sails Ahead”, forthcoming] was published in 2003 by “ Le Fennec” in Morocco and “Altereditions” in France. Other books are yet to be released.
She also gave interviews to multiple radios and televisions from around the world: ARTE, France 3, France 5, BBC, Radio Orient, Oumma TV, Radio Canada, and others ....
Since she obtained her passport in 2003, she took part in many international conferences and forums, among which are:
  - The 6th Annual International Congress of the Mediterranean Studies Association, Budapest (Hungary , May 2003)
  - Critical Discourse and Political Reflection , San Sebastian (Spain, June 2004)
  - Strategic Meeting of Anti-war and Anti-globalization Movements, Beirut (Lebanon, September 2004).
  - “The Arabic House Institution” meeting , Amsterdam (Holland, September 2004)
  - Islam and Democracy, Berkeley (USA, April 2005).
She gave many lectures in Morocco and abroad: Paris, Lyon, Madrid, Amsterdam and New York.
She has distinguished stances regarding many issues, national and international:
  - She was the first to proclaim that the Mudawana (Moroccan family code) was not sacrosanct and must be reviewed.
  - Her position on Palestinian and Iraqi issues are well-known.
  - She also has opinions on national matters : human rights , regime in power ...etc
  - She took part in countless demonstrations and protests.
She was arrested with her family members when they took part in a sit-in in support of human rights. All of them were sentenced to 4 months of imprisonment and had to pay fines. (The sentence is still deferred).
She’s currently prosecuted for lese majesty and disrespect of “national sacred institutions” on the ground of an interview she gave to the Moroccan weekly “Al Usbu’iya Al Jadida”(June 2nd , 2005) where she adamantly criticized monarchy to which she favoured the republic as a proper system of government close to the Islamic theory of political power. She’s been recurrently voicing such views for years.
Nadia Yassine is expected to be sentenced from 3 to 5 years of imprisonment, and to be fined from US$ 1000 to US$ 100 000.