Rania Chellah, 15, Meknes

What do you know about the 80s? Personally, I do not know much about it, but I know that it was a time when Moroccan women suffered from all kind of

discrimination, when their large majority did not get the opportunity to go school nor to wear something different from a jellaba, and when gender equality was not a thing. However, it was also the time when my mother grew up, in a small meknessi street, and the time she decided she would become someone fabulous.

Middle and high school were a real struggle for a girl who was not allowed to do her homework instead of helping with the chores. In fact, my mother’s family and community simply did not give the same value to her education that they gave to the one of her male cousins and other relatives. They saw her as someone who should stay home, get married and have kids. They saw her as “a girl” should be seen. Even my grandmother didn’t see the point in educating her own daughter instead of just find her a husband and teach her how to cook. However, my mom, although her young age, always managed to top every class she was taking and to not let the negativity she was surrounded by get to her. She made her education her number one priority and tried to convince her family to do so. After graduating high school, it even took a whole summer vacation to convince my grandmother that college was necessary. My mother decided to pursue studies in biology, dreaming about becoming a pharmacist. Her motivation came from the idea of becoming an independent woman; a woman who do not wait for her husband to work for her. But, after two years of studying in meknes, she started to understand that she needed to do more if she wanted to achieve her

goals, so she came up with the idea to go study in Russia, knowing that it wouldn’t be simple to convince her mother. However, she raised that challenge and even, somehow, finished by succeeding. She knew that attending this new 58

college would be everything but easy and that it will take her tons of hard work to succeed. The college was also located in a faraway country, in a time where cell phones were not a thing, which made this whole adventure harder. However, this was her dream, so she went for it. Four years later, she came back to morocco with a diploma, proving all the people that doubted her because she was a woman wrong. This diploma has enabled her to open a pharmacy which wasn’t successful at all the first years, but which she managed to make so by working hard and being patient. The diploma also enabled her to defy the idea that a woman should stay home and cook, and that studies are a man’s thing. And this is how my mother, who did not come from a rich family, who did not have many of opportunities offered to her, became a successful person.

My mother, and her inspiring story, have taught me two important things: the first one is that a woman can do whatever a man can do, and the second one is that

nor money nor people should ever stand in the way between me and my dreams. Today, my mother works at her pharmacy, takes us to school, and takes care of us all by herself, yet she has always managed to do everything right. She is the person from who I get my motivation and my passion, and she is the person who always pushes me to do more and to believe in myself. This has made our mother-daughter relationship even stronger and more powerful. Actually, it is not just a simple mother-daughter relation; she is also my advisor, my role model, my friend, my teacher at the school of life, my motivator, my supporter… When I was in kindergarten, she was the person who left all of her work and all she had to do to come watch the plays I participated in. When I was struggling to make friends in my new school in 7 th grade, she was the person who kept telling me how special I am. Whenever I had a nightmare, she was the one who stayed awake, sitting on my bed and holding my hand until I fell asleep. Since I was born, she is the person who struggles everyday to give me everything I need, and to offer me the best life she could. Today, she is the person who keeps telling me to believe

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in myself and in my dreams. No one has ever supported me like she does, and that is one of the many reasons why I will always be grateful to my mother.

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