Prince gave up a title for scholarship; discusses hopes for reform
Hicham el Alaoui was a young prince — only 7 — when he witnessed a devastating military coup unfold against his family inside the Moroccan royal palace in 1971. The assailants did not succeed in overturning the 350–year-old monarchy, then under the rule of his uncle, King Hassan II, but Alaoui saw his father wounded, and dozens in the palace killed. It set the backdrop for the spiritual and political reckoning that would take him far outside the strictures of the monarchy, into the realm of scholarship and onto the international stage. As Alaoui grew and became more outspoken in advocating for reform, relations with his family deteriorated. Twenty years ago he parted ways with the monarchy, and recently he formally asked the king to relieve him of his royal title, eschewing his position in the line of succession. Today, as a scholar and doctoral candidate in Oriental Studies at Oxford...