Aicha Chenna is the president of the association “solidarité féminine” founded in 1989. The association provides social housing and medical treatment for single mothers with their children, one of the religious taboos within Moroccan society. Aïcha Chenna (or Aïcha Ech-Chenna; born 14 August 1941) is a Moroccan social worker and women’s rights advocate and activist.
She began working with disadvantaged women as an employee of the country’s Ministry of Health. In 1985, she founded the Association Solidarité Féminine (ASF), a Casablanca-based charity that assists single mothers and victims of abuse. Chenna has received various humanitarian awards for her work on human rights, family law, and a decent life for unmarried mothers, including the 2009 Opus Prize (worth US$1 million).
Aicha Chenna was born in 1941 in Casablanca, Morocco. She is the daughter of an imam who died when she was young. She attended university at age 15, graduating with a degree in social work.
At age 46, Aicha Chenna retired from full-time nursing to focus on her primary interest in working with single mothers, abused women, and children, especially victims of domestic violence and child abuse. She has been a social worker for Morocco’s Ministry of Health since 1976.
In 1985, Chenna co-founded ASF, a Moroccan charity that assists women whose partners abuse or neglect them. In 1999, she received the accolade from the United Nations to promote women’s rights and was appointed as a UN Goodwill Ambassador for the year 2000. Chenna has also served as a member of Morocco’s Consultative Council on Women’s Rights and the Extraordinary Assembly of Human Resource Development. She received honorary doctorates from Carthage College (1990) and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (1992). In 2005, she was selected as a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations International Women’s Day.
Chenna has received various awards for her charitable work, including the 2009 Opus Prize (worth US$1 million) and the Medal of Resistance against Foreign Aggression in Morocco.
Chenna is married to Dr. Mohammed Ech-Chenna, with whom she has four children. She resides in Casablanca, Morocco.
