On the occasion of the Amazigh New Year’s Day, corresponding to January 13 of each year
A party and a civil organization in Morocco demanded, on Tuesday, the adoption of the Amazigh New Year as a national holiday and official holiday in the country, and the improvement of the conditions of the Amazighs.
The Amazighs give the name of “Edh Janvier” (the night of January) to the Amazigh New Year which corresponds to January 13 of each year.
In a statement, the Moroccan Party for Progress and Socialism (opposition) called for taking and implementing concrete measures to improve the conditions of the Berbers and include them in all aspects of life, in accordance with the requirements of the constitution.
The Party (22 parliamentarians out of 395 in the House of Representatives) renewed its demand for the adoption of the Amazigh New Year as a national holiday.
For its part, the Amazigh Action Front (a non-governmental organization) demanded that the Amazigh year be recognized as a national holiday and an official holiday.
By way of a press release, the Front called on all citizens to celebrate the Amazigh year, stressing the need to “consolidate the Amazigh dimension of Moroccan identity within institutions”.
A number of associations and organizations had previously called for the establishment of the Amazigh New Year as a public holiday, such as the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (the largest association for the defense of human rights). man of the country).
At the end of last month, government spokesman Mustapha Baitas confirmed that “the government has given enough strong signals on the implementation of the official character of the Amazigh language”.
Baitas told a press conference after the Ministerial Council meeting that the government has allocated one billion dirhams ($ 100 million) to activate the official character of Amazigh, adding that this case requires more than this budget.
The Moroccan official also said that “the government does not see the issue as a reconciliation with identity, but rather to achieve justice, equity and equal opportunities”.
Mustapha Baitas is committed to launching other initiatives to activate the Amazigh language in the coming months.
There are no official figures on the number of speakers of the Amazigh language, but it is an indigenous community living in the region from the oasis of Siwa (western Egypt) towards the west to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, and the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the south of the Sahara.
