Hafida Hdoubane is Morocco's first female guide in the Atlas Mountains. Speaking to the BBC in a video made public on March the 8th, Hdoubane said that in 1994, she «succeeded in becoming the first female mountain guide in Morocco». Leading women-only groups of mountaineers, the young woman is part of a group of guides in the Atlas Mountains that organizes tours in the region. With female tourists, she visits «nomadic women» and helps them earn a living. Her current job is a way of proving to society and her family that women can be strong and independent. «We are six women in my family … we fight to show our father, who did not like us because we were women», Hafida Hdoubane said. «I must show to my father that I am very strong and that I can be like a man», said the female guide who climbed Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa, more than 200 times. In addition to her job that she loves, Hafida makes sure to empower women she meets on her way to Toubkal. «When I am hiking with my clients and I am in the villages, I stop all the time and try to say that girls must go to school», said the Moroccan guide.
