Rabat, Morocco, May 2, 1996.
My parents were both born and raised in Morocco; my father migrated to Italy in the early 1990s for economic reasons. I have lived in Italy since 2000, when I was four years old, and I began practicing athletics in 2010 in Reggio Emilia with Self Atletica.
Specialized in the 400 meters, I reached the peak of my athletic career in 2013, when I achieved the IAAF qualifying standard for the U18 World Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine. I was not allowed to participate because at the time I still held Moroccan citizenship.
At 20, I gave up the dream of becoming a professional athlete and began working as a social educator for a local cooperative. Today, I am officially an Italian citizen, having been granted citizenship on January 31, 2020, in the Sala del Tricolore—the very place where the first flag of the Cispadane Republic was created, the ancestor of today’s national flag.
Now, I want to make a difference for the million children and teenagers who are living through the same situation I experienced.
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