Controversy Erupts at French School in Morocco Over LGBTQ Film Screening

Last Wednesday, the institution broadcast a film depicting a romantic relationship between two young women, which sparked mixed reactions among parents. Part of the educational community deemed the film’s content inappropriate, believing it contained sexual allusions and addressed themes out of step with the prevailing sociocultural values in Morocco.

This situation led several parents to express their anger, stressing that although the school is affiliated with the French mission, it remains subject to the directives of the Moroccan Ministry of National Education. They insist on the need to respect the dominant traditions and moral values in Morocco, questioning the relevance of such content in the local educational program.

A previous case in a French school in Kenitra

Last December, the public prosecutor ordered the opening of an investigation into a French mission school that some parents accuse of having presented information about homosexuality to their children in a country where it is prohibited and punished by law.

A teacher at the Honoré de Balzac school in Kenitra, which is part of the French mission schools abroad, "presented information on homosexuality and abnormal tendencies and disseminated insulting ideas about Islamic personalities and symbols that affect the religious belief of children, and calls them to accept homosexual conceptions and to disseminate perceptions praising same-sex relationships".

Parents of students reported the incident to the school administration. But they "lost patience" after the school administration remained silent and indifferent to end the behavior of the teacher concerned, and brought the case before the judicial authorities of Kenitra at the beginning of the current year in order to "protect the schoolchildren", explained a parent.