Maati MONJIB

Writer, academic, and historian Maati Monjib continued to be a target of harassment by Moroccan authorities due to his critical writings and views about the government. He remains unable to access his assets or leave the country after a ban imposed on him in October 2021, which he has protested, despite the fact that he was included in a royal pardon in September 2024, which brought to an end his prosecution begun in 2015(see Case Lists 2020 - 2023/2024). He also continued to be subject to smear campaigns by pro-government media and remains unable to resume his job as history professor, from which he was dismissed in September 2022.

Monjib, born in 1962, is a writer, academic, historian and the president of Freedom Now, an association that works to defend freedom of expression and journalism in Morocco, and is also the founder of the Ibn Rochd Center for Studies and Communication.  His books include: The Moroccan Monarchy and the Struggle for Power; A Political Biography of Mehdi Ben Barka (with Zakya Daoud);  and Islamists Versus Secularists in Morocco.