The Rif Boils Once More: Morocco’s Makhzen Silences Gen Z as It Silenced Zefzafi
✍️ BY: Dr. Hana Saada
Algiers – October 2025 – Rabat’s official narrative of “stability” and “openness” is once again collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. From behind the high walls of Tangier 2 prison, six detainees of the Rif Movement have sent a searing message that exposes the Moroccan regime’s enduring machinery of repression. Their call for the release of all political prisoners — including veteran lawyer and former minister Mohamed Ziane and members of Gen Z arrested during recent social protests — has reignited public debate over Morocco’s unhealed wounds.
The letter, laden with both pain and political consciousness, shatters the illusion of progress carefully constructed by the Makhzen. It is a stark reminder that Morocco is once again entering a period of profound social and political tension, as a new generation confronts the same oppressive apparatus that once crushed the Hirak of 2017. Behind the rhetoric of “advanced regionalization” and the “new development model,” the prisons remain full of young voices whose only crime was to dream of a country worthy of dignity.
The tragedy of the Rif has become cyclical — punishment for demanding a hospital, a university, or a job, while the regime continues to funnel millions in privileges to foreign corporations in exchange for political silence and systematic normalization. The message of the six detainees echoes far beyond the prison walls, resurrecting the memory of the late Ahmed Zefzafi, father of the imprisoned movement leader Nasser Zefzafi. Until his last breath, the elder Zefzafi embodied the resilience of a father who turned his grief into a lifelong struggle for his son’s freedom and for the dignity of an entire region.
The prisoners’ statement also denounces the mistreatment of Mohamed Ziane — the octogenarian lawyer and former human rights advocate — who continues to face trials and harassment for his refusal to bow to power. His perseverance, his frail face marked by exhaustion yet his resolve forged in steel, has made him a symbol of moral defiance in a country where silence is rewarded and free speech is criminalized.
Their collective message is unambiguous: “The state has chosen rigidity and extremism in its positions.” These few words encapsulate the mindset of the Makhzen — a regime that perceives every protest as a threat and every free citizen as an enemy. Instead of listening to legitimate social demands, it continues to wield its familiar tool: the iron fist of the security apparatus, which has never produced anything but anger and resentment.
Now, that anger finds its voice in a new generation — Gen Z — who did not live through the early days of the Rif uprising but have inherited its spirit. Through TikTok and Instagram, they have turned digital spaces into arenas of dissent, denouncing corruption, unemployment, and the unbearable cost of living. Yet, the Makhzen has responded in the only way it knows: arrests, intimidation, and censorship. The same baton once raised against the youth of Al Hoceima is now striking the youth of Casablanca and Rabat.
Linking the imprisonment of Nasser Zefzafi, the persecution of Mohamed Ziane, and the crackdown on Gen Z is no coincidence. It reveals a system that fears awareness more than revolt — a regime terrified of the lawyer who exposes judicial corruption, the student who films a protest on his phone, and the expatriate who unmasks the myth of the “New Morocco” from Brussels or Paris.
The recent march in Brussels, held in conjunction with the fortieth day after Ahmed Zefzafi’s passing, offered a powerful testament that the Rif’s cause has not died. It has transcended geography to become a symbol of civil resistance against a state that monopolizes power, wealth, and even speech.
In the end, no regime can imprison an entire generation, nor can a thousand prisons extinguish the idea of freedom. From Zefzafi to Ziane to Gen Z, the story remains the same: a people who refuse to kneel, and a regime that knows only the language of the stick. The flames of the Rif may be contained for a time — but they continue to burn beneath the surface, illuminating a truth that no wall, no prison, and no propaganda can forever conceal.
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