Moroccan police stifle women’s protest in northern city

Moroccan authorities stifled a women’s protest against corruption on Saturday in a northern town.
The protest in the town of Al-Hoceima was organized by the “Hirak” movement, which is campaigning for jobs, infrastructure and other demands in the northern Rif region, and whose leader Nasser Zefzafi was arrested last week on charges of threatening national security, among other offenses.
Police encircled hundreds of female protesters to leave a public park in Al-Hoceima late on Saturday, impeding others from joining, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.
Female police officers and riot police pushed the leader of the protest, Nawal Ben Aissa, a prominent member of Hirak, away from the group.
She was accompanied at the protest by Zefzafi’s mother.
Protests around Al-Hoceima have been simmering since October after a fishmonger, Mouhcine Fikri, was crushed to death inside a garbage truck.
One woman fainted after police stifled the protest.
A heavy security presence has been in place around the city’s Sidi Abed square.
Fikri’s death has become a symbol for frustrations about official abuses and revived the spirit of the Feb. 20 movement that led pro-democracy rallies in 2011.
Since Zefzafi’s arrest after he interrupted a Friday prayer sermon, protests have become a daily occurrence in the town.
“We go to sleep in fear, and we wake up in fear,” said Fatima Alghloubzari, 54 who tried to join the protest on Saturday.
“We never imagined our city would become like this.”
One woman fainted after police stifled the protest.
A heavy security presence has been in place around the city’s Sidi Abed square. Since Zefzafi’s arrest, police have been increasingly preventing people joining in protests and blocking access, organizers say.
Moroccan government spokesperson Mustapha El-Khalfi acknowledged last week that the Hirak protests and demands were “legitimate,” and said authorities were speeding up promised infrastructure and development projects for the region.

Source: Arab News