Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco
Moulay Hicham ben Abdallah Alaoui | |||||
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Prince of Morocco | |||||
Born | Rabat, Morocco | 4 March 1964||||
Spouse | Malika Benabdelali | ||||
Issue | Sharifa Lalla Faizah Alaoui Sharifa Lalla Haajar Alaoui | ||||
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Dynasty | Alaouite | ||||
Father | Prince Moulay Abdallah | ||||
Mother | Lalla Lamia Solh | ||||
Religion | Sunni Islam |
Royal family of Morocco |
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Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco (Template:Lang-ar, born 4 March 1964) is the first cousin of the current King Mohammed VI and Prince Moulay Rachid. He is the son of Prince Moulay Abdallah of Morocco, the late brother of former King Hassan II, and Princess Lalla Lamia Solh, daughter of Riad Al Solh, the first Prime minister of Lebanon. He is also the cousin of Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, whose mother Mona Al Solh is another daughter of the Lebanese family. Under the Moroccan constitution, Moulay Hicham stands third in the line of succession to the Alaouite throne.[1]
In his youth, Prince Moulay Hicham garnered the nickname "Red Prince" because of his leftist political positions. More recently, he has become an outspoken advocate for greater democracy in Morocco[2][3] and the broader Middle East.[4][5] He regularly speaks on these issues at public forums around the world, among them la Universidad de Málaga,[6] HEC-Paris (École des hautes études commerciales de Paris),[7] the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,[8] and Harvard University.[9] He has also published numerous essays on political reform and democracy in English, French, and Arabic language journals and newspapers.[10][11][12] He is currently a consulting professor at the Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law at Stanford University.[13][14]
Activities
- Founder and President of the Moulay Hicham Foundation, a non-profit private foundation that has supported social science research on the Arab world at leading universities.[15]
- Co-founder, along with John Waterbury and Abdellah Hammoudi, of the Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia (TRI) at Princeton University.[16]
- Managing director of Al-Tayyar, a renewable energy firm, based in Abu Dhabi.[17]
- Member of the Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch for the Middle East and North Africa region.[18]
- Producer of the 2012 award-winning documentary on democratization and dictatorship, A Whisper to a Roar, in collaboration with director Ben Moses.[19]
Personal Life
As a member of the Moroccan royal family, Prince Moulay Hicham was raised in the palace quarter of Rabat alongside his brother and cousins, including the current King Mohammed VI. He attended the Rabat American School and graduated from Princeton University in 1985.[20] He later attended Stanford University for graduate study in political science. In 2002, Prince Moulay Hicham relocated to Princeton, New Jersey with his family.[21] He is married since 1995 to Princess Lalla Malika Benabdelali, a cousin of the Moroccan businessman and current minister of Agriculture Aziz Akhannouch. He has two daughters: Sharifa Lalla Faizah Alaoui (born 1996) who currently attends Yale University, and Sharifa Lalla Haajar Alaoui (born 1999). Many of these events are outlined in his memoirs, Journal d'un Prince Banni,[22] published in April 2014 to considerable controversy.[23][24]
References
- ^ Royal Ark
- ^ Moulay Hicham Speaks to Morocco's Attempt at Reform
- ^ The New York Times: The Staying Power of Arab Monarchies
- ^ Youtube: Al-Jazeera English interview with Prince Moulay Hicham
- ^ France24 Interview with Prince Moulay Hicham
- ^ Youtube: Seminar at the University of Malaga[
- ^ Youtube: Inaugural HECMA Conference
- ^ Middle East conference at UIUC
- ^ Youtube: Keynote Address at Harvard Arab Alumni Weekend 2013
- ^ Journal of Democracy: The Split in Arab Culture
- ^ Le Monde Diplomatique: Are the Arab Monarchies Next?
- ^ Pouvoirs, revue française d'études constitutionnelle et politiques: The Other Morocco
- ^ Professor, Prince at Stanford
- ^ Faculty Profile
- ^ Moulay Hicham Foundation
- ^ Transregional Institute
- ^ Al-Tayyar Energy
- ^ UC-SB HRW Fundraiser Report
- ^ A Whisper to a Roar Website
- ^ A Prince of Morocco, now of Princeton
- ^ Telquel: La Nouvelle Vie de Moulay Hicham
- ^ Amazon.com
- ^ Youtube: France24 Interview with Prince Moulay Hicham on release of memoirs
- ^ French man arrested for stalking Moroccan prince