A handsome guy": the phrase of a Moroccan MP that caused outrage

The incident occurred just after the intervention of Soukaina Lahmouch, known to be the youngest MP in Moroccan history. As the chair of the session was thanking her, the voice of the President of the Haraki Group, Driss Sentissi, was heard. According to the video transcripts, he would have declared in Arabic, inserting the French expression: "my prayer is that she brings us a handsome guy".

These remarks provoked laughter in the chamber but also an instant response from the Minister of Economy and Finance, Nadia Fettah Alaoui, who retorted to the MP: "Why do you think women, that’s all they want?". The sequence quickly went viral on social media.

The MP’s defense against the accusations

Faced with the controversy, Driss Sentissi tried to explain his words, claiming that it was in fact an "invocation for the offspring of the speaker". A longer version of the recording shows that he would have indeed expressed wishes for "virtuous offspring" just before his remark on the "handsome guy", without this justification appeasing the unease.

The incident was all the more noted as it occurred during a technical debate in the Finance Committee. Ironically, this same Driss Sentissi had, in a previous intervention, insisted on the role of women in local development and called for their better economic and social integration.

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