A few years ago, Malika Iberraken would not have dared to imagine such a fate for her son, diagnosed with “severe autism” at the age of seven. However, ten years later, thanks to his passion for chess, Mohammed is a “fulfilled” teenager who has just joined the Saint-Cyr school. His mother recounts “his journey” and “his battles” to BFMTV.com.
Until the age of 10, little Mohammed did not speak. “He was screaming, he was jumping and he was clenching his fists to express himself, it was his way of communicating”, tells BFMTV.com Malika Iberraken, whose son was diagnosed with “severe autism” shortly before his seventh birthday. A few years later, Malika Iberraken delivers in her book I’m not afraid anymore, mom – published by Fayard editions – “the atypical journey” of his son Mohammed, who, at 17, has just joined the prestigious military school of Saint-Cyr school.
“Never would I have dared to imagine such a fate for him,” admits his mother. “When he was little, my dream was for him to become independent. When some parents dream that their children will succeed in their studies, that they can do the job of their dreams. ‘would have believed?’ Asks, with a smile on her face, this 46-year-old woman, payroll manager at Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis).
“Chess was revealing”
“He came a long way,” recognizes Malika Iberraken. And for good reason, she remembers the little boy who remained silent during his first four years of nursery school, until he pronounced the word “mom” at the age of seven. Of his tics, “heavy on a daily basis”. The one who refused to eat, unless it was little salmon carrot pots of a very specific brand.
Today, she sees in this book a way to “help” and “give hope to families” like hers:
“It’s true that when your child is diagnosed with such a disability, you may tend to think that there is no more hope, that his life stops there when no, not necessarily. .. on the contrary”.
“Even if it was hard, we never gave up, you have to never let go, hang on and go knock on all the doors”, launches Malika Iberraken, who says that she and her husband have always sought to stimulate Mohammed, by making him discover as many things as possible.
And that’s what will make the difference. Everything changes when Mohammed discovers chess at the age of 10. Through this passion, the child reveals himself. Malika and Karim discover a new side to their son.
“It was revealing, he got hooked right away. It allowed him to channel himself and it revealed his demand for himself and in everything he does. We noticed that it made a lot of progress and it developed things in him that we did not suspect. Even today, it is his driving force, “explains his mother.
Thanks to this trigger, Mohammed gets very good grades when he enters college. “If we could only have Mohammeds in class, that would be ideal”, we even said one day to Malika Iberraken in a parent-teacher meeting.
“The weight of administrative battles”
When she evokes these years, this mother of two children describes a permanent “combat”, strewn with many pitfalls, so that the handicap of her son is recognized, and that he can integrate the structures which correspond to him: a medical institute (IME) or a ULIS class adapted to the education of disabled students, for example.
“Building a file at the MDPH (Departmental House for the Disabled) is already so complicated, so long. And that’s just the beginning”, develops the forties. “In addition to the weight of the diagnosis and the daily life that we can have on our shoulders, we have to fight with the administrations to make sure to give the best to our child”.
“I do not hide from you that when Mr. Macron was elected president, I had a little hope because I knew that Brigitte Macron was committed to this. It really hurts my heart,” reports Malika Iberraken.
She does not hide her disappointment and would like to meet the First Lady today to discuss the issue.
Before his election in 2017, Emmanuel Macron pledged to make disability one of the priorities of his five-year term. The presidential couple had even welcomed young autists to the Élysée to present the “autism plan” that they intended to put in place. However, in recent months, the closures of psychiatric services have multiplied in the territory.
Last January – two years after the mediatized visit of the Head of State to the Saint-Egrève psychiatric hospital in Isère, the Grenoble establishment was forced to close a service. As was also the case at the Saint-Maurice hospital in Val-de-Marne in January 2022, or even at that of Pontoise last January…
“Maybe things have been done, but today it didn’t happen at my level,” replies the mother, who now plans to open an association. “On the contrary, there are not at all enough specialized reception establishments… And the fact of pooling the structures or the accompanying persons such as the AESH means that today, I have the impression it’s getting worse and worse.”