Wearing a dress is not a crime!

July 2015

By Zineb Achmoul

A lot of people describe Morocco as the most beautiful Arab country, where exotic colours paint major cities; smells of great couscous on Fridays or harira during Ramadan are escorted by warm air, smiling people greeting tourists and foreigners; without forgetting the popular camel rides that everyone seemed to be amazed by. Morocco is all of this, and much more! Behind those smiles, around those lunch tables, and behind those painted walls, there is another side of Morocco.

See! When you walk in the streets in cities like Rabat or Marrakesh, you will be surprised to see how open minded people seemed; most women dressed as any other European, walking and talking freely; with the only disturbance requires man expressing their sympathy which many of us would call harassment. By night, you will see young couples going out to party planning to inhale a lot of party drinks before ending in very compromising situations. Indeed! The craziest stories I’ve heard in my whole life did not happen in London or Paris where I both lived in for years, but Morocco!

In a way it is awesome to see young people living their lives, enjoying their parties and going beyond what is expected of them. The problem is what is done is not necessary alright! A party girl might have difficulties to find a husband or simply be respected because she partied too much. A young man will have to dramatically change once he marries a young woman and starts adopting the most primitive and close minded behaviour while before, he was considered the street dealer. Partying like anyone might not have punctual consequences but might certainly follow you in the near future.

It is simple, Moroccan principles are stamped with date and location. Those values evolve unfortunately in the wrong way with time and depending on your location. Did you know that just last month two girls were persecuted after being victim of a group of man harassing them? Their crime? Wearing a dress (skirt) during Ramadan. 3 month to a year in jail, that was their sentence before more than 500 lawyers and three major manifestations gathered to convey one message: wearing a dress is not a crime!

I have to admit I was relieved and happy to hear that common sense, security and freedom are still possible, it brought my country hope, it brought me hope because let’s face it, it could have been me!

I used to think that people who were quick in contradictive judgement were those who have not spent much time abroad. They do not know how other people live outside the kingdom. Well I was wrong. I had a funny discussion with a very good friend of mine. Before she turned mad, her response seemed pretty surprising to me. What happened? We played “imagine your son comes to you with a choice” game.

I asked my friend: suppose your son comes to you with a choice and tell you: “mom you have the choice today to decide what could be my destiny. I can marry a woman, beat up my wife, ignore my kids and commit adultery or marry another man, create a happy family raise my children properly and respect others. Her choice was with no hesitation: marry a woman.

I then asked her: what if your son comes to you and say “mom you have a choice on my destiny. I can be Muslim, do my prayers five times a day and be a murder, or become a well-respected doctor who saved people, lectured in big universities but yet choose to be Jewish.  What would you want me to be? She hesitated and ended up not answering. It was too hard of a choice! I was chocked!

Do not blame it on education! Do not blame it on culture! Blame it on society’s state of mind! You can be an open minded person in Paris or London or anywhere, and completely change inside the Kingdom. You can enjoy watching American movies with prostitute in it and be shocked if the movie was Moroccan  You could have had great moments being in compromising situations and become a macho and primitive father or husband. You could be the one still enjoying your party drinks and yet ignoring that belief is first a choice and not an obligation.

We hide behind “hchoumas” (word used to describe shame) and “haram” (word used to describe forbidden by Islam) to avoid discussing major issues like: rape, adultery, prostitution. We do not put words on them to keep them unreal. But there are real! This is Morocco.

Besides that Morocco is the most beautiful country in the world. If you decide to go and visit, drop me an email I will be happy to sit down and talk you through the most important cities to visit.