Spanish enclave youth in focus: ‘Inshallah’ captures Muslim lives in Morocco
Brunetti’s photo project explores identity, exclusion, and dreams in a borderland city
CEUTA, Morocco (MNTV) – In his latest photo series Inshallah, Italian photographer Nicolas Brunetti offers an intimate look into the lives of young Muslims in Príncipe Alfonso, a marginalized neighbourhood in Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on Morocco’s northern coast.
Shot between July 2023 and April 2025, the project weaves portraits and landscapes to reveal the personal hopes, daily struggles, and layered identities of a generation caught between continents, cultures, and choices.
Ceuta, while politically part of Spain and the EU, is geographically in North Africa. Known for its towering border fence—the Valla—and its role as a migration flashpoint, the city also faces Europe’s highest unemployment rate, hovering around 30%.
For Ceuta’s Muslim youth, many of whom hold Spanish passports but are often seen as outsiders, this creates a profound sense of limbo.
“Inshallah,” meaning “God willing,” frames the project as a reflection on suspended futures—filled with uncertainty, but not without agency.
Among the portraits, Aissa Rouk El Masoudi (22) is seen after prayer, gazing out through a fluttering curtain—an image Brunetti uses as a metaphor for permeable borders and inner reflection.
Aissa dreams of studying abroad, but says he might return to help his community. In contrast, Mohamed Hassan Mustafa (23) is determined to stay and make it as a singer in the city of his birth.
The series also spotlights Mariam Mohamed (20), an aspiring English teacher who lives on one of Ceuta’s most dangerous streets, and Yusef Ahmed Hossain (10), whose paper plane at sunset near Benzù beach becomes a symbol of unbounded imagination.
Their lives reflect a broader condition: European by law, Arab and Muslim by culture, and shaped by exclusion and possibility in equal measure.
Brunetti’s project refrains from reinforcing stereotypes. Instead, he reveals moments of everyday resistance, ambition, and care—found in bedrooms filled with trophies, street corners echoing with music, and quiet hopes whispered across dinner tables.
Awarded and exhibited internationally, Inshallah aims to spark conversations about how borders—both visible and invisible—shape the lives of Muslim youth in Ceuta.
As Brunetti puts it, “This generation is not simply suspended—they are imagining, moving, and dreaming forward.”
Have Your Say!
Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@soundvision.com.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a Muslim Network TV’s representative. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
Tweet: @MuslimNetworkTV
We must take charge of our narrative. Research indicates that 92% of their Muslim coverage is negative. Help us change that.
