Harry, Meghan meet Moroccan girls on official tour
Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, met Moroccan schoolgirls at the foothills of the High Atlas mountains on Sunday, during their last official foreign tour before becoming parents.
The teenagers lined up to meet the royal couple during their visit to the town of Asni, south of the tourist hub Marrakesh.
The royals’ tour was set to focus on initiatives promoting girls’ education, women’s empowerment and the inclusion of people with disabilities.
Meghan, with henna on one hand, accepted flowers from one of the girls in Asni while she and Harry chatted to the group from the programme Education For All Morocco.
The organisation runs free boarding houses to give girls aged 12 to 18 from the High Atlas region access to education.
A quarter of Moroccans aged 15 to 24 are out of work and not in training or education, according to official data for 2016, a figure rising to 44% for girls and young women.
Asni is close to the area where two Scandinavian women were murdered in December and some British media have raised fears over safety during the royal tour.
But diplomatic sources have dismissed concerns about security in Morocco, where on Thursday police dispersed protesting teachers with water cannon in capital Rabat.