“Courage is never giving up, having faith in yourself, and fighting for your rights with optimism and passion.“
Rabha El Haymar is a courageous Moroccan woman who successfully navigated her country’s legal system and fought to obtain, through a recourse provided by Morocco’s family code reform of 2004, recognition of her traditional marriage to spare her daughter a life of marginalization and discrimination as an undocumented child. Ms. Haymar’s story became more than a personal triumph when she crossed paths with British film-maker Deborah Perkin and agreed for her story to be told in a documentary entitled “Bastards.” Shown on Moroccan national television and film festivals around the world, “Bastards” raises awareness about the plight of mothers of undocumented children, and the Moroccan family laws allowing women like Ms. Haymar to seek justice. Despite the heavy reputational cost of publicly sharing her story, Ms. Haymar believes doing so can encourage other women and lead to change. As King Mohammed VI calls for a new review of Morocco’s family code, Ms. Haymar’s case is now more relevant than ever. She hopes that new reforms “will protect the rights of all women and children and empower them as full and equal citizens.”