On Saturday, April 19, 2025, the joint stand of the Ministry of Youth, Culture, and Communication and the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) welcomed Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, French-Moroccan writer and former minister in France, at the International Publishing and Book Fair (SIEL). She introduced her autobiography, “La vie a plus d’imagination que toi” answering questions from journalist Mohamed Ezzouak.
Originally published in 2017 ( Grasset ed), the book was updated and recently “republished” by La Croisée des Chemins. Najat Vallaud-Belkacem recounts her personal and political journey, from her childhood in a Moroccan village, the northern neighborhoods of Amiens to her ministerial roles in France. She discusses her struggles, her French-Moroccan identity, and the doubts her story raises in French society. A personal narrative that highlights an inspiring human trajectory, far from stereotypes, “where she fully embraces her story, which has also become a French story.”
“When I ceased being a minister, I regained my freedom and the ability to visit Morocco more often, to see the country evolve, and to reconnect with my roots,” she said.
Ms Vallaud-Belkacem, “writing was a duty”, because she wanted “to put faces and life stories to issues like family reunification or naturalization, often reduced to numbers and statistics. Adding This same sense of duty drove her political commitment.
After studying law and graduating from Sciences Po Paris, “I felt I had to give voice to those around me.”
In her political career, she was driven by a passion for social justice and the “ability to be moved by a presidential election, like in 2002 when Jacques Chirac stopped the right wing from getting to power.
Her message to younger generations, particularly those with a dual nationality, is to “embrace our wholeness with gentleness”.
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