Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco ( ar, الأمير مولاي هشام بن عبد الله, born 4 March 1964) is the first cousin of the current
King Mohammed VI
Mohammed VI ( ar, محمد السادس; born 21 August 1963) is the King of Morocco. He belongs to the 'Alawi dynasty and acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999, upon the death of his father, King Hassan II.
Upon ascending to the throne, Moh ...
Prince Moulay Abdallah of Morocco
Prince Moulay Abdallah of Morocco, KCVO, (30 July 1935 – 20 December 1983) was the brother of Moulay Hassan, later King Hassan II of Morocco and the son of King Mohammed V of Morocco (1909–1961) and his second wife, Lalla Abla bint Tahar (19 ...
, the late brother of former King
Hassan II Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to:
People
* Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name
*Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scotti ...
, and Princess Lalla Lamia Solh, daughter of
Riad Al Solh
Riad Reda Al Solh ( ar, رياض الصلح; 17 August 1894 – 17 July 1951) was the first List of Prime Ministers of Lebanon, prime minister of Lebanon after the country's Lebanon#Independence from France, independence.< ...
, the first
Prime Minister of Lebanon
The Prime Minister of Lebanon, officially the President of the Council of Ministers, is the head of government and the head of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon. The Prime Minister is appointed by the president of Lebanon, with the consent ...
. He is also the cousin of Prince
Al-Waleed bin Talal
Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud ( ar, الوليد بن طلال آل سعود; born 7 March 1955) is a Saudi Arabian billionaire businessman, investor, philanthropist and royal. He was listed on ''Time'' magazine's Time 100, an annual list of the hu ...
of
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
, whose mother Mona Al Solh is another daughter of the Lebanese family. Under the Moroccan constitution, Moulay Hicham stands fifth in the
line of succession
An order of succession or right of succession is the line of individuals necessitated to hold a high office when it becomes vacated such as head of state or an honour such as a title of nobility.Alaouite throne.
In his youth, Prince Moulay Hicham garnered the nickname "Red Prince" because of his progressive political positions. Since the 1990s, he has become an outspoken advocate for constitutional monarchy in
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
and democracy in the broader Middle East. These controversial positions have distanced him from the Moroccan palace, and are thought to have created personal conflict with King Mohammed VI and other political forces. Partly for this reason, in recent years, he has attracted the new label of the "Rebel Prince." In 2018, he publicly announced his desire to renounce his royal title and institutionally sever ties with the Moroccan monarchy. In a widely watched January 2019 interview on BBC Arabic, the prince expressed his hope that while the Moroccan monarchy could eventually embark upon meaningful democratic reforms, he wished his role to be that of a scholarly advocate rather than a political figure.
Prince Moulay Hicham regularly speaks on issues of human rights, democratic reform, and social movements at public forums around the world, among them the
University of Málaga
The University of Málaga (UMA, ''Universidad de Málaga'') is a public university ranked 23 among all Spanish universities and 683 in the world. It was established in 1972 and has, as of 2016, 30,203 Bachelor students and 2576 on a Master's pr ...
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...
,
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
,
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
,
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...
,
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
,
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, and
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, as well as prominent broadcast media like
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
and
France 24
France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned international news television network based in Paris. Its channels broadcast in French, English, Arabic, and Spanish and are aimed at the overseas market.
Based in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Mo ...
. Since the 1990s, he has also published numerous essays on political reform, democracy, religion, culture, and development in the Middle East in English, French, and Arabic language journals and newspapers. During 2007-14, he served as a consulting professor at the Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law at Stanford University. Since 2018, he has been based at Harvard University as a research associate at the Weatherhead Center. In January 2023, Hicham Moulay was expelled from Tunisia when he came to hold a conference there organized by the Arabic edition of the French monthly ''Le Monde Diplomatique'
Professional activities
*Founder and President of the Hicham Alaoui Foundation, a non-profit private foundation supporting social science research on the Arab world at leading global universities, among them College de France and Gothenburg University, as well as scholarly books on topics such as the political economy of Arab educational systems.
*Co-founder, along with
John Waterbury
John Waterbury is an American academic and former president of the American University of Beirut.
Early years
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Waterbury attended Princeton University (BA 1961), studied Arabic at the American University of Cairo (196 ...
and Abdellah Hammoudi, and principal donor of the Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia (TRI) at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
.
*Founder and principal donor of the Arab Reform and Democracy research program at Stanford University.
*Numerous past advisory positions for academic institutions and pro-democracy NGOs, including the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University, the MENA advisory committee of
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, the
Carter Center
The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. He and his wife Rosalynn Carter partnered with Emory University just after his defeat in the 1980 United States presid ...
, and the Middle East Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
*Founder and principal of Al Tayyar Energy, a renewable energy firm with major investments in Thailand and other developing nations.
*Producer of the 2012 award-winning documentary on democratization and dictatorship, A Whisper to a Roar, in collaboration with director
Ben Moses
Ben Moses (born 1948) is an American documentarian, television producer, director, writer, and filmmaker best known for ''Good Morning, Vietnam'' and the documentary ''A Whisper to a Roar''. Moses has been the executive in charge of television ...
.
*Principal officer for
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
in 2000.
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
Mohammed VI ( ar, محمد السادس; born 21 August 1963) is the King of Morocco. He belongs to the 'Alawi dynasty and acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999, upon the death of his father, King Hassan II.
Upon ascending to the throne, Moh ...
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1985 with an A.B. in an independent concentration after completing a 137-page senior thesis titled "Sources of Success and Failure in the Palestinian National Movement." As his father, Moulay Abdallah, died during his college education, the prince developed a close relationship with King Hassan. He later attended Stanford University for graduate study, graduating in 1997 with an M.A. in political science. Many of these events are outlined in his memoirs, ''Journal d'un Prince Banni'', published in April 2014 to considerable controversy.
In 2002, Prince Moulay Hicham relocated to
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...
with his family due to political tensions with
King Mohammed VI
Mohammed VI ( ar, محمد السادس; born 21 August 1963) is the King of Morocco. He belongs to the 'Alawi dynasty and acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999, upon the death of his father, King Hassan II.
Upon ascending to the throne, Moh ...
and other elements of the Moroccan monarchy. He was married in 1995 to Sharifa Lalla Malika Benabdelali, a cousin of the Moroccan businessman, RNI party luminary, and current
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Aziz Akhannouch
Aziz Akhannouch (; ; born 1961) is a Moroccan politician, businessman, and billionaire who is currently the Prime Minister of Morocco since his government took office on 7 October 2021. He is the CEO of Akwa Group and also served as Minister of A ...
. He has two daughters: Sharifa Lalla Faizah Alaoui (born 1996), who attended
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, and Sharifa Lalla Haajar Alaoui (born 1999), who attended Princeton University. In 2014, he began pursuing a D.Phil. research degree in Middle East studies at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, which he successfully defended in February 2020.
Prince Moulay Hicham's positions have often instigated outside pressures, including personal and financial threats, as well as smear campaigns in Morocco's state-run media sector. In August 2012, Moroccan MP Abdelhadi Khairat accused him of financial embezzlement, a charge that instigated a successful defamation lawsuit and Khairat's eventual apology for the allegations. In May 2014, the French police arrested an individual on stalking charges at
Orly Airport
Paris Orly Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Orly), commonly referred to as Orly , is one of two international airports serving the French capital, Paris, the other one being Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). It is located partially in Orly ...
, who in turn claimed that several Moroccans had asked him to monitor the prince's movements. In September 2017, he was controversially deported from Tunisia while scheduled to speak at an academic conference held by Stanford University for reasons suspected to be politically motivated. In November 2018, he won a major libel trial in the United Kingdom against the Arabic-language Elaph media outlet, which had published a story accusing him to have plotted against the Moroccan monarchy. That case was also notable in compelling British courts, in the wider context of UK law, to clarify and deepen the meaning of defamation within electronic publications. In July 2021, the prince was revealed to be one of the targets of the
NSO Group
NSO Group Technologies (NSO standing for Niv, Shalev and Omri, the names of the company's founders) is an Israeli cyber-intelligence firm primarily known for its proprietary spyware Pegasus, which is capable of remote zero-click surveillance ...