Franco-Moroccan Youth Secretary Embraces Dual Heritage, Emphasizes French Identity

Sarah El Haïry was born in France to parents originally from Morocco. "My parents met in Morocco where they were actually born. They arrived in France after their majority, settled in Paris, a city that embodied social advancement in their eyes. As for me, I was born in Loir-et-Cher. My father and mother were not afraid to leave the capital to settle in Romorantin-Lanthenay and work at the hospital. This choice of mobility has marked me, as well as their faith in meritocracy," she recounts in an interview with DDV.

After the separation of her parents, her mother took Sarah and her brother to Rabat, where her grandparents lived. Little Sarah then discovered Moroccan culture. "I grew up with the richness of two intertwined cultures and I chose to love France, without opposing my other culture. I am at peace and do not fantasize at all about an unknown or idealized country. Our French model allows identities to be combined, without opposing or canceling each other out. No more than we demolish Colbert, do we demolish the identity of one’s parents: it is an integral part of oneself."

According to the Franco-Moroccan, raising children in a kind of guilt or a feeling of non-allegiance amounts to creating not "a desire for France but an injunction of choice." "My choice has been to love France and to defend this ideal of being French, which is based on a foundation of values and principles." She also urged young people to show patriotism. "Being a patriot is loving France, defending it, being proud, without being in opposition to the culture of one’s ancestors, when it is more distant. Renan spoke of the nation as a ’daily plebiscite’. This is why it is essential to recall how important the understanding of our history and these stages of citizenship are."

Sarah cites school democracy, youth municipal councils, advisors, class delegates, eco-delegates and, tomorrow, universal national service and civic service.