Morocco: Yasmina Benslimane, a young activist who promotes women’s active participation in politics

Yasmina Benslimane is a young Moroccan women’s rights activist. But not only. She is also passionate about politics, international relations, migration, human rights… Different areas of interest that the young activist often combines in her various initiatives, such as « Politics 4 Her », a blog she founded in 2017 to encourage women’s active participation in politics. 

Growing up with a single mother, but also with grandparents who were politicians, Yasmina Benslimane “developed naturally an interest in the promotion of women’s rights, but also in politics and international relations from her childhood,” she confides.

After high school, she studied Political Science as major in her undergraduate studies in 2014 at Saint Louis University, Madrid campus. The analytic skills she acquired “opened her eyes” on the “complexities of the modern world”. Above all, she discovered that politics is « an evil male-dominated milieu” where many scourges, such as corruption, are rife. This led her to launch the blog “Politics4her” in 2017, because she believes that «women can change this distorted vision of politics and struggle for a better world if they are more meaningfully engaged in politics,” she says. 

Through the platform, Yasmina Benslimane campaigns to end stereotypes associated with women, but above all to encourage women to actively participate in civil society, politics and leadership positions in order to inspire others.The platform has a team of volunteers from different countries around the world, as well as more than twenty ambassadors who have been recently chosen and will be trained to develop their leadership skills. 

Dynamic, passionate and very committed, the young woman, who considers herself a citizen of the world, campaigns for women’s rights on several levels. She is a “Young Leader” for Women Deliver, an organization that champions gender equality. In addition to working for more women’s participation in politics, she is also committed to women’s empowerment. On February 1st, 2021, she will launch a coaching program for young women, particularly in the areas of advocacy, personal development, public speaking…

Committed to defending human rights

In addition to her “feminist” hat, Yasmina Benslimane also considers herself a human rights activist. Her passion for migration and refugee issues began while she was pursuing her master’s degree in international law and the settlement of disputes in Costa Rica, she tells us. In 2018, she was chosen to participate in a research project in collaboration with Tufts University on the economic and financial trajectory of migrants. She discovered, among other things, the refugee camps in Costa Rica. She also taught English to teenage refugees as part of a project with the United Nations High Commissionner for Refugees (UNHCR). As soon as she graduated, she was a trainee at the Regional Office for North, Central America and the Caribbean of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). As a result of all these commitments, in January 2021, she was selected as participant and co-facilitator of the Global Forum on Migration and Development organized by UNICEF, IOM and the United Nations Children and Youth Group. She is also pursuing a Master’s degree in Migration and Refugee Studies.

As a young activist, Yasmina Benslimane often speaks on behalf of youth in the Arab world, but also in Africa on several issues such as slavery, political participation of young people … during international conferences, webinars to make their voices heard. She is also a committed panafricanist. She was just selected by the African Union youth envoy office to represent Morocco in the capacity charter youth hustler to advocate for the ratification of the African Youth Charter by the 16 African Union Member States who are yet to sign it.