The MENASSAT Center for Research and Social Studies has launched a research dynamic on individual freedoms in Morocco. The Dar Eddaya hotel in Khemisset hosted, from November 27th  to the 29th, 2020, a series of conferences and trainings, in partnership with the GermanHanns Seidel Foundation, on the theoretical and practical aspects of sociological work on individual freedoms as a transversal subject.

The launch of the training program benefited from the presence of about twenty participants under the guidance of professors from several disciplines, including sociology, economics and political sciences.

On the basis of the work and debates carried out, individual freedoms still give rise to much controversy, despite the fact that Moroccan society has undergone profound transformations affecting traditional structures, the configuration of the family, the importance of the individual in the society and its freedom. In general, these debates are often dominated by the political aspect and the positioning of the actors at the level of their own references. Questions of liberties/ freedoms are not the subject of social research. Therefore, this debate will remain mutilated in the absence of a return to its base, which is the concept of freedom and how it is socially represented in the Moroccan societal context.

The director of the MENASSAT Center, Aziz Mechouat, declared at the opening of the first session of the program that individual freedoms are a source of constant controversy between the different actors. According to him, it is useful to ask the following questions: "Has the question of individual freedoms today become an inevitable necessity? What is the level of contradictions between individual needs and the dominant traditional structures? Does it pose that at the legal level, that is to say the promulgation of laws which legalize individual freedoms, or does the problem arise at the level of social representations? "

In his intervention entitled "The question of values ​​and manifestations of individualism among young people", the researcher Aziz Mechouat, professor of sociology at the University of Casablanca, presented a synthesis of the conclusions drawn from studies on values ​​of the youth of Casablanca in particular.

Professor of sociology at the University of Abdel Malik Asaadi, the researcher Abdarahman Zakriti participated in the training with an intervention entitled "Problematic of the approach to individual freedoms in Morocco in sociology". He reviewed the Moroccan context and its specificity, recalling a number of philosophical and legal issues and their overlap in any debate around individual freedoms in the Moroccan cultural context.

Professor of sociology at the University of Fez, the researcher Mohsine Rahouti has for his part presented an intervention on what he called "the social cost of freedom of belief in Morocco" where he introduced a number of biographies, and the paths of those who have chosen to practice beliefs different from those existing in the Moroccan context.

On the other hand, the researcher Ahlam Qafas, professor of economics at Ibno Tofail University, presented in an intervention entitled “Communication on individualfreedoms, what approaches? », communication and discussion mechanisms on individual freedoms. While the researcher Ikram Adnani broached the subject of “individual freedoms at the heart of legal and social controversies”. The Professor of political sciences at Ibn Zohr University, presented a number of fundamental laws relating to freedoms within Moroccan society. The legal controversy raised by issues such as publicly breaking the fast during Ramadan, the freedom to practice sex in extra marital relations, etc.

It should be mentioned that this training is part of the JIL program launched by MENASSAT for Research and Social Studies. This program aims to empower and complete the training of a number of young researchers in the field of human sciences in order to improve their research capacities related to theoretical and field research techniques and how to analyse empirical data in full respect of scientific approaches. The next objective is to present them to public opinion and decision-makers in a way that positively serves the major challenges of society of rationalization, development, democracy and freedom.