SOCIAL ACTIVISTS from Morocco

Top 4

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Moroccan Social Activists of all time. This list of famous Moroccan Social Activists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Mordechai Vanunu (b. 1954)

With an HPI of 59.94, Mordechai Vanunu is the most famous Moroccan Social Activist.  His biography has been translated into 38 different languages on wikipedia.

Mordechai Vanunu (Hebrew: מרדכי ואנונו; born 14 October 1954), also known as John Crossman, is an Israeli former nuclear technician and peace activist who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, where he was drugged and abducted. He was secretly transported to Israel and ultimately convicted in a trial that was held behind closed doors. Vanunu spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 in solitary confinement, though no such restriction is mentioned in Israel's penal code, nor imposed by his verdict. Released from prison in 2004, he was further subjected to a broad array of restrictions on his speech and his movement, and arrested several times for violations of his parole terms, giving interviews to foreign journalists and attempting to leave Israel. He claims to have suffered from "cruel and barbaric treatment" at the hands of prison authorities, and suggests that things would have been different if he had not converted to Christianity. In 2007, Vanunu was sentenced to six months in prison for violating terms of his parole. The sentence was considered unusually severe even by the prosecution, who expected a suspended sentence. In May 2010, Vanunu was arrested again and sentenced to three months in jail on a charge that he had met foreigners, in violation of conditions of his 2004 release from jail. In response, Amnesty International issued a press release in July 2007, stating that "The organization considers Mordechai Vanunu to be a prisoner of conscience and calls for his immediate and unconditional release." Vanunu has been characterized internationally as a whistleblower and by Israel as a traitor. American whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg has referred to him as "the preeminent hero of the nuclear era". In 1987, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "his courage and self-sacrifice in revealing the extent of Israel's nuclear weapons program".

2. Abdallah ibn Yasin ( - 1059)

With an HPI of 53.80, Abdallah ibn Yasin is the 2nd most famous Moroccan Social Activist.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Abdallah ibn Yasin (Arabic: عبد الله بن ياسين; born in "Tamanart", died 7 July 1059 C.E. in "Krifla" near Rommani, present-day Morocco) was a theologian, spiritual leader and the founder of the Almoravid movement.

3. Aminatou Haidar (b. 1966)

With an HPI of 46.04, Aminatou Haidar is the 3rd most famous Moroccan Social Activist.  Her biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Aminatou Ali Ahmed Haidar (Arabic: أميناتو علي أحمد حيدر; born 24 July 1966), sometimes spelled as Aminetou, Aminatu or Aminetu, is a Sahrawi human rights activist and an advocate of the independence of Western Sahara. She is often called the "Sahrawi Gandhi" or "Sahrawi Pasionaria" for her nonviolent protests. She is the president of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA). She was imprisoned from 1987 to 1991 and from 2005 to 2006 on charges related to her independence advocacy. In 2009, she attracted international attention when she staged a hunger strike in Lanzarote Airport after being denied re-entry into Moroccan Western Sahara. Haidar has won several international human rights awards for her work, including the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, 2009 Civil Courage Prize and 2019 Right Livelihood Award.

4. Latifa Ibn Ziaten (b. 1960)

With an HPI of 37.24, Latifa Ibn Ziaten is the 4th most famous Moroccan Social Activist.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Latifa Ibn Ziaten (Arabic: لطيفة بن زياتين born 1 January 1960 in Tétouan, Morocco), is a French-Moroccan activist. She is the mother of Imad ibn Ziaten, born in 1981, the first service member in Toulouse killed by Mohammed Merah on 11 March 2012.