Celebrating the Stop the Traffik Data to Disrupt Trafficking Awards 2025

Marci receiving the Honorable Mention award from Baroness Theresa May, former Prime Minister of the UK

What an incredible honor! At the Stop the Traffik Data to Disrupt Trafficking Awards ceremony in London on October 16, 2025, The Strawberry Girls won the Honorable Mention Award for the category of Lived Experience. Although we were already honored to be shortlisted in the category, and we knew that Habiba’s narrative was definitely a winning story, I honestly did not expect to win this award.

When I heard Baroness Theresa May, former British Prime Minister and the Chair of the Commission of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, announce “The Strawberry Girls,” I trembled with excitement. I walked up to the podium, carrying Habiba’s famous dark red, Moroccan, leather babouche slippers in one hand and her portrait in the other. Every time I tell Habiba’s story or attend an event in honor of my dearly beloved friend, I carry her shoes in my bag. It’s a way of keeping her present with me. Thankfully, I had Habiba’s shoes with me that night!

While Baroness Theresa May read my bio and told about my work with The Strawberry Girls, I sat on a bench in front of the crowd to awkwardly remove my black leather boots and socks and to slip on Habiba’s babouche slippers. Everyone wondered what I was doing, especially Baroness Theresa May who still held the framed award in her hands.

“I’m coming!” I said nervously to all the onlookers. I fought to hold back my tears.

“I give this award and honor to Habiba, “The Genesis Girl” of The Strawberry Girls!” I said as I held up Habiba’s portrait for all to see.

I proceeded with telling a short story of Habiba’s journey from Morocco to the strawberry fields of Spain, to the brothel, and into the safe house where I first met her. I then went on to share how Habiba finally mustered up enough courage to share her own story with the police to open the official investigation of the Strawberry Girls’ traffic line. Her police interviews ended only one month before she passed away. A miracle!

To close, I held up Habiba’s portrait again and read the poem on the back of the print—“A Person or a Project?” My hands were shaking, and my tear-filled eyes barely allowed me to see the printed text on the card.

“I’m shaking!” I said to the crowd.

“Habiba, I do this for you!” I said looking up above me.

I knew that Habiba was there, giving me strength, giving me courage. I didn’t shed tears as I read. Rather, I recited my written words with intensity, boldness, conviction, and confidence. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room as I ended my poem with a loud and boisterous, “DON’T FORGET HABIBA!”

Habiba’s story continues to rock the world, and even after her passing on March 16, 2025, her voice continues to be heard around the globe, announcing freedom and hope to all the other “Habibas” still behind closed doors.

I am grateful for our collaboration with Stop the Traffik, an incredible organization whose motto is “Preventing human trafficking before it happens.” Their focus is exploitation analytics, prevention programs, and data driven solutions to study and disrupt traffic lines. We are now working together on a North Africa-focused project to collect stories of The Strawberry Girls in Morocco and Spain. Stop the Traffik will generate crucial data that we need to better understand and study this much-traveled route. Together, we will disrupt the evil and darkness on the journey of these Moroccan women who cross the Mediterranean Sea to Spain through the strawberry camps and into the brothels!

Thank you, Stop the Traffik, for your incredible work, for this amazing award, and for honoring the beautiful and powerful told story of our Beloved Habiba!

DON’T FORGET HABIBA!

DON’T FORGET ALL THE HABIBAS!