Four university professors appeared before Moroccan courts on Tuesday, accused of sexual harassment of female students in exchange for favorable grades, in an unprecedented scandal affecting the university sector in the kingdom, according to a source close to the case. The issue, dubbed "sex for grades," emerged in September after local media highlighted it following the publication of sexually explicit messages exchanged by one of the accused professors and his students on social media. Five university professors are implicated in the scandal, three of whom have been placed in pre-trial detention, while two have been released on bail.
Four of the defendants are lecturers at Hassan I University in Settat, near Casablanca, facing serious charges including "promoting immorality," "sexual discrimination," and "violence against women," as the same source reported to Agence France-Presse. The Moroccan court has scheduled the next session for December 14, according to media reports. The fifth defendant is in custody and facing a more serious charge of "sexual assault with violence." He is expected to appear on Wednesday before the criminal chamber of the appeals court in Settat, according to the source.
In the wake of the scandal, the dean of the Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences in Settat resigned in November, and the university president is facing potential penalties, according to the newspaper Al-Akhbar. Concurrently, the National Judicial Police opened an investigation.
In recent years, media reports have highlighted numerous cases of sexual harassment faced by female students from their professors in Moroccan universities; however, the majority of these cases did not lead to complaints, and those that did often remained unpursued. In 2018, after lengthy discussions lasting years, a law was enacted criminalizing practices considered a form of harassment, assault, sexual exploitation, or abuse. Nonetheless, women's rights advocacy groups have deemed the legislation "insufficient" and called for stricter measures in this regard.
