Citizenship: An Interview with Amine Naini by Ahmed Salat

                       Amine Naini. Photo: 7/12/2018

As part of our Religion, Security and Global Citizenship in the Arab World class- one of the two classes I’m taking in Morocco this summer- we have been exploring what citizenship is and what it means to different people. Through our class discussion, we defined citizenship as the state of someone to have a sense of belonging to a given country as recognized by the laws of that particular country. Citizenship is a complex topic and different people have different interpretation of the term.

In an effort to get a diverse perspective, I talked to a couple of people, of different nationalities, and asked about their understanding of the term. One of these people was Aminie Naini, a Moroccan citizen who is a current student at the American Language Institute in Fez (ALIF), studying English. Amine is my language partner at the center where we help each other practice English and Arabic. When I asked the question, he didn’t really have an exact answer, just like I was earlier this week before we discussed the topic in class. After I tried to explain and put the question in context of what we would be discussing, Amine said that to him citizenship is “having the status of belonging to (his) country because of the fact that (he) was born in (that) country and having rights and responsibilities and using them to take a positive role in shaping the future of (his) country.” He went further and explained these responsibilities, giving examples such as voting during elections so that his country could  have leaders that would bring change thus , like he said earlier,  his decision to vote would have shaped the future of his country.

Citizenship is never static, it changes constantly in every society. Usually, of importance is the question of whether citizens’ active or passive participation in the different spheres of a particular country determines whether one is a good citizen or not. To evaluate citizen’s involvement, there are a set of apparatus that can be used to measure citizenship. These dimensions of active citizenship include participation in political life, civil society, the community and one’s values. I asked Amine a couple of questions in line with his participation in these dimensions and he shared some of the activities he has been involved with which he sees as his own way of contributing to the country and to his fellow citizens too.

Political Life: Amine has been exercising his right to vote and creating awareness during campaigns about voting out bad leaders.

Civil Society: He has both been volunteering with and  making donations to a local organization called Shabab Al-Kheir that runs orphanages and organize cleaning and taking care of graveyards (graveyards are usually communal and there’s an importance attached to taking good care of them). Amine has also, severally, taken part in boycotting products such as gas and milk producing company, Central Afriquia and also Sidi Ali, a water producing company for either overpriced or low quality products.

Community Dimension: He has been participating in AIESEC community service events in Fez. He has also been contributing to his country culturally by interacting with many foreigners coming to Morocco and teaching them a lot about Moroccan culture and clearing out any negative stereotypes they have about Moroccans (we played a fun game called Stereotypes).

Values: Amine cares about human rights, both Moroccan and that of immigrants and feels that immigrants in Morocco should have the same rights as Moroccans because that is how he would also want to be treated if he went to another country.

While he thinks he has been actively participating and practicing his citizenship, he still feels that the government, through corruption  and empty promises to the citizens, often makes it really hard for him to see the Morocco he wants!

I found Amine’s responses thought-provoking and I thought I should share them with you. Feel free to share your thoughts on my conversion with Amine and what you think citizenship means to you, in relation to your country!