2007-08 Teacher Exchange Fublright to Morocco: (In no order.) Saadia Maski-Jaafar Kharbouche, Charif Al Idrissi, Ben Slimane-Elois Bates-, Grant High School, Portland, OR-Said El Mohtarim, Ennour High School, Beni Mellal-Lisa Magurn, -Briar Woods High School, Ashburn, VA-Khadija Rahmani Princess lalla Asmae, Oujda-Paula McLaughlin,-Mercy High School, San Francisco, CA-Mustpha Lionboui Abdelmalek Assaadi, Kenitra-Nicholas Kirschman- Webster Groves High School, Missouri-Brahim Gouaalla Princess lalla Meriem, Agadir-Megan Altmann_ Tully High School, Upstate, NY-Noureddine Kahlaoui Moussa Bnu Nuceir, Marrakech-Jeanne Windsor- St. Paul's School, NH-Rabia Antaki Allal El Fassi, Tangier-Georgeanna Wielkoszewk Phoenix Country Day School, Arizona-Sakina El Khayari Glen Burnie Senior High School, MD-Erin Sullivan Lycée mixte de Missour, Missour. |
October 1. 8:50 a.m.
Leaving for D.C. I ended up packing 145 pounds of stuff to take to Morocco. One large bag, weighing 65 pounds is really just filled with gifts, books, 21 projects my problem solving class created to teach moroccans about america. It cost me $50.00 to transport an extra 15 pounds. There must be some government regulation that we fly the cheapest fare because the flight if it was direct would take around three hours, instead, its going to take 8 hours with a 2:30 layover in Atlanta. But, I really can't complain-the State Department is paying $1600.00 for my plane fare alone to Morocco.
October 1 8:24 p.m.
Ate dinner on the USDA tonight. Strange having dinner on the government tab.
I haven't met one of the other participants. WiFi is down at the hotel and I had a nice dinner, showered and repacked-as usual. |
Students were asked to write a postcard to a friend in English.
|
2007 Fulbright to Morocco Teachers: (In no particular order) Elois Bates, Lisa Margun, Paula McLaughlin, Megan Altmann, Jeanne Windsor, Georgeanna Wielkoszewki_ and me. Margaret Mara and Stephen Hanley are are the far right, they were part of the Morocco Exchange in 2004 and returned to give us some advice. |
Morocco Briefing:
Washington D.C.
October 2
Pre-departure briefing was given by Holly Stephens, a Program officer with the Department of State, Christina George, the Lead Program technician for the Graduate School at USDA (mainly overseeing graduate student Fulbrights) and Robert Harrison, who oversees short term programs for the USDA. The State Deparment also arranged for the two top Diplmatic officers specializing in Morocco to brief us.Mr. Pen Agnew who is the Cultural Coordinator and Policy Officer for the Department of State and Mr. Dennis Curry who is the acting desk Officer for Morocco. (He was just named the cultural attache to Saudi Arabia). Agnew is on the "light" side-he oversees cultural diplomacy while Curry represented the "dark" side-he is a political diplomatic officer. The following is my notes from the briefing:
The United States has been pushing economic, political and social reforms in the region. Morocco is a rarity in that they are seeing all three reforms take place simultaneously. Morocco was recently the recipient of a $600 million dollar Millienal Program grant after they had shown significant reforms in all three regions. The electoral process is free and fair, there are no significant economic barriers to progress and the King recently reformed the legal code outlawing any legal discrimination against women. There is a lively free press, so long as they don't criticize the King or question the territorial integrity of the Western Sahara. (There was a civil war over the independence of the Western Sahara and the region is still a festering problem.) There are no real legal barriers to reforms in all three of these areas. Moroccoians tourism industry continues to grow and the goverment views it as an industry of growth. There is a debate amoung anyalsists if the monarchy is moving towards a constutional-parlimentarian monarchy, like England or will remain an absolute monarchy which it is now.
Morocco is considered to be a key alley in the reform efforts in the Middle East. The state department has encouraged democratization in the country and the country has expanded economically-they hosted the G8 conference in December of 2004. Karen Hughes, who is the Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and a personal friend of George Bush, has been pushing programs for the United States to reach out to young people and provide opportunities as opposed to the extremists. She recently returned from Morocco to see how her programs have been progressing. She has been pushing Fulbrights to reach out to younger individuals-high school and even elementary school kids-to expose them to ammeirca and american cultue. Margaret Tutwielr, the american ambassador, started a program called "Access English" which provides scholarships for high school students to study English. She also is sponsoring scholarships for individutals to study at the American School in Rabat, to expand english education byeond the elites.
Morocco has been a long time friend to the United States. They were the first to recongize the United States after their breka with England in 1776. They have also been a vioce of moderation in the region. They were one of the first arabic speaking countries to recongize the State of Isreal and have been a voice of moderation on the Palistinian issue. The country has been very tollerant, itself a mix of berber, arab and jew. The King during the second world war even protectd the jews in morocco from the Nazi's and the Vichy govermnet. Apparently, on the 8th floor of the State Departmnet, there is a painting of the King recogonizing the American goverment.
Morocco is often consdred an "easy middle eastern" country for US goverment officals to vist. They like us (for the most part) and the goverment is not just tollerant of the US but pro US.
However there is some tension between the Maghrib states: Morocco, Tunesia, Lybia and Egypt. They are all vieying for leadership of the region but each one faces very different and very sever issuses. Algeria, while experinecing phenomenal economic growth, still has the threat of civil war between the military and the Islamists hanging over its head. They fought a rather bloody internal war during the 1990's because of canceled elections; while there is truce now there is no gauntee that the war will not start.
The Moroccans recently had an election which from all accounts was fair and free. I asked Mr. Curry why the voter turn out was so low (The Economist reported a voter turn out of 35-37%) and he said that many people in the street still felt it was an absolute monarchy so the election may not matter. As of right now, the parliament really has no power and no power to change things. On the other hand, lots of people speculated that the Islamits parties would gain seats in the parliment and that didn't happen. The really interesting part is trying to explain the reason that the Islamists didn't gain more seats.
Morocco still faces many problems, mainly illiteracy (mainly among women), poverty and high unemployment, mainly in the urban poor. The United States and Europeans consider this a witchs brew right on the cusp of Europe in which Morocco could play the role of a reformer in the Muslium world or a center for Islamist infiltration of Europe. (Curry elluded to the fact that Morocco is pointed at the underbelly of Europe-Spain-and is the closest Middle Eastern country to Europe).
There has been some significatn terrorism in the country. There was a major bombing of US intersts in Casablanca in 2003 and an attempled bombing of the US Consolate in the spring of 2006. (The plot was foiled) The King is working with islamic leaders in Morocco to try and depolitize islam and provide real alternatives to the extremists. (If there is a concern why I am there, the embasy will send out a warning.) There is a new consolatation amoung various indiginious terrorist groups into AQIM or Alquida of the Maghrib which has been active in Algeria. (The boarder between Morocco and Algeria was closed in 1991 because of the civil war in Algeria and has not been reopend.) The rejection of the Islamists parties during the recent election has been intereperted by some as a rejection of this violence. However, a number of the individuals invovled in the Madrid train bombings were of Moroccan decent.
I found out that I am the first non-french/arabic speaking social studies teacher to be accepted for this program. I had known about the program for a number of years but never meet the language requriemtns.
They told us that we are "not expected to be an advocate for US policy." (THANK YOU-STATE DEPARTMENT)
I found out how to pronounce the cities name: KEN-E-TRA
The Salvester Stallion character Rambo was named after the wonderfully weird and difficult french poet Rambaud. |
Students were asked to write a postcard to a friend in English.
|
France and Morocco Part I
October 8, 2007
The War of One and a half million martyrs. I asked a history teacher about the how French was Algeria-being that the one thing that really has impressed me is how French Morocco is. I didn't need to learn arabic to come here, I need to take some French lessons. Abdelmajid was contrasting Morocco with Algeria. In Morocco, the French called it a "protectorate" and the first Resident General Hurbert Lyautey's policy was "do not offend a single tradition, do not change a single habit." They recognized the Moroccan Sultanate and gave it lip service while retaining the power, money and trade. The "protectorate" provided a place for French citizens to move to and start companies and farms. Kenitra, the city I am in, is creation of the protectorate. The movement against French colonialism took a pacifist track in Morocco.
Even though they fought against the protectorate, France has had a tremendous effect on the country. French is spoken by almost everyone in urban areas and is heard on Maghreb TV. The government holds its meetings in French. Abdelmajid said that anytime a problem arises in Moroccan society, they immediately look to France for solutions, 'what did the French do when they faced this problem,' irrelevant of the fact that Morocco seems to need Moroccan solutions.
Algeria was different. Algeria became "France overseas," officially part France. There was a violent and bloody war of liberation that saw the French leave Algeria, the 4th republic in France fall and DeGaul return to power. Abdelmajid said that French culture had saturated Algeria even more than here in Morocco. He said that they know the French better than the French know themselves. The Algerians call the the war The War of 1,500,000 Martyrs because thats how many Algerians were killed in the struggle. |
Security at Washington DC airport
|
Abdelmajid Saligane and Amine Lionboui at the Kasbah de Mediya
|
Islamic Holiday
October 9, 2007
Historic occasion yesterday. The late King Hassan II started a tradition of inviting Islamic scholars from across the Arab world to to give lectures in the palace after the Iftar. The tradition has been continued by the current King. Yesterday is the first time a woman scholar has given the address.
Today is the anniversary of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) receiving the Quran. The governor showed up to pray at the mosque. I went out to witness the event and it seemed that everyone in the neighborhood was there-the mosque was overflowing. The municipality cleaned up the square, planting some trees and palm trees. More importantly, they cleaned a lot of the trash off the streets and hauled it away. This is the first time he has prayed at the new mosque but he apparently comes every Ramadan to Kenitra to pray. Interestingly, the Imam at the mosque was hired by the community. |
Wednesday
October 3, 2007
The Hotel Majliss
Rabat, Morocco
I charmed my way onto the Paris flight without having to pay (it should have cost me at least $50.00 but I got free bags plus a $12.00 voucher for dinner because the flight was four hours late.)-but one woman brought two 75-80 pound bags and Air France just said NO so i ended up caring around 25 extra pounds in the backpack so she didn't have to pitch stuff. She is going to swing by Senegal on the way back-she taught there about 7 years ago and still has friends.
Security at DC was pretty tight. I tried to take a photograph of TSA searching a Sikh (Sikh's wear turbans but are NOT Muslims) but I got an ugly look from the guards so I didn't. I am not sure why I have to take off my belt though. My bags were searched at every point along the way-TSA left little helpful notes in my luggage to let me know. I was much more impressed by El Al's security interviews and how American Airlines interviewed me when I flew back from Istanbul this summer-it made more sense then the current policy. |
The square before the governor's visit with freshly planted Palm trees.
|
The Night of the governors visit.
|
Charles DeGaul Airport-very modern in a very 1960's way. It seems modern only if you know what modern meant in the past. Now, it seems dated and has a feel of decay and overwork.
Paris, somewhere off in the distance, is gray and foggy with a light rain. The plane we flew over in was about 80% full-I got an aisle seat but there was an individual next to me who would not sit still. I read a statistic that the slaves during the middle passage had more room than an economy class passenger. However, since we flew Air France, instead of a domestic carrier, they were very apologetic and polite about it.
The flight out of D.C. was delayed by four hours, so we sat as a group and tried to get to know one another-making little connections. I am the only male and at least half of the group have been to Morocco before-either on vacation or in the Peace Corp. I was able to sleep most of the way, after my seat-mate fell asleep. He was a little too squirmy for my taste. |
Security at Charles DeGaul Airport
|
The community gathers for prayer. The mosque received some new carpets and the square got some new streetlights for the event.
|
Introducing Rabat
October 3, 2007
11:30 p.m.
We arrived in Rabat mid afternoon. The Mohammed V Royal Airport has one runway and one baggage claim, and one x-ray scanner. They don't seem to get a lot of air traffic in and out of Rabat. There are no gates-they just roll a ladder up and you walk across the tarmac.
After we settled in, we met with Khalid Ben Sir. Khalid in arabic means "eternal" and he joked about the irony of naming a mortal being "eternal." Khalid was a companion of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and a common name in the Muslim world. Khalid is a historian here in Rabat. He was driving a very nice, new Mercedes sedan. We are staying in the old section of town, which was rebuilt by the French colonial government. Their are the remains of the original city walls. Apparently, every day at 5 p.m. a caller would get on top of the main gate and yell out "those who want to get out-GET OUT...and those who want to get in-GET IN" then they would lock the city gates.
We went to see two important points in Rabat. Rabat in arabic means "hitching post" or "a place where one can tie up a camel or a horse". Over time, it has evolved into "the place where one lives." There has been a city here since Phoenician times but has only been the capital since 1956. The French set up their protectorate headquarters here from 1912-1956 and demanded that the capital stay here after the Moroccans regained their independence. |
Pets in Morocco
Pets have an unusual status here in Morocco. The Prophet had cats and apparently liked them so some Muslims will keep cats. There is a story about a woman who was sent to **** because she failed to properly care for a cat. The Lionboui family has a small cat named Jacques which the daughter Rim plays with constantly. The cat must be a saint because he is carried around like a rag doll and is perfectly compliant-jacques has never scratched her. The cat does not sleep with the family.
Dogs, on the other hand, are considered dirty animals and are almost never allowed in the house. Animals are really viewed as beasts of burden, dogs working as guard animals or helping heard sheep. I have seen a few individuals keep poodles but most of the dogs I have seen are feral and live out of garbage bins, competing with feral cats, cows, sheep and the homeless for food. |
Hassan Mosque and Mohammed V Mausoleum Complex
|
A cow wandering the neighborhood. It is illegal to allow farm animals in residential communities but no one really does anything about it. The police ran off all the farm animals before the visit of the governor to the mosque. Mustafa's house is in one of the fast growing suburbs which all use to be either farmland or part of the Mamorra forest. The forest, for all practical purposes has ceased to exist. It is largely been destroyed for wood pulp to make paper or burned to create charcoal.
|
We first went to the Le Tour Hassan-Hassan's Tower. It was a minaret started by Almohad sultan Yacoub al-Mansour in 1195 and intended to be the tallest minaret in the world. However, he died before its completion and the tower was never finished. It was suppose to be 60 meters tall but the construction stopped at 44 meters. The mosque was destroyed by an earthquake in 1735, and the pillars are all that remains. The mosque was the center of an Almohab fort, built to train Muslim soldiers for the conquest of Spain. They were taught to pray, fight and swim at the castle named Ribat el Fathi: The Stronghold of Victory. They were eventually successful and controlled all of Andalusia by 1170. Many of the soldiers returned from Spain and went back to their nomadic life in the desert. Khalid attributes the stark, harsh architecture to the desert environment that they were raised in. If you have seen the Alhambra or the moorish architecture in southern Spain-it evolved out of the style of ornamentation used in Hassan's Tower. This may be the only mosque that I get to visit as Morocco restricts non-Muslims from visiting mosques. |
A feral dog scavenging for food in the garbage bin outside Mustafa's home.
|
A cat perched on the trash binds.
|
On the grounds of the mosque is the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. Mohammed V is considered by Moroccans to be the Father of Modern Morocco. He negotiated the withdrawal of the French from 1955-1956 and returned to assume the throne when the French left.
The mausoleum was designed by a Vietnamese architect Vo Toan. The unfinished mausoleum was for his son, Hassan II but when he died the new king deiced to spend the money on the countries infrastructure so it was never completed. |
Mustafa's Home
All the housing here is made mostly out of cast concrete. There are no wooden homes. Mustafa was shocked that we built our homes out of wood and stated that that is why so many were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. There are shanty towns-illegal settlements which the poor from the rural area settle in. These are often then destoryed by the local goverment and the poor given compensation and the chance to by property to build a house for 50-75% less than others. There is apparently a scam where these individuals move into shanty towns, purchase the land at reduced prices, then sell it on the open market. |
Amine Lionboui, Mustafa Lionboui, Rim Lionboui and brother-in-law Abdelkader Zerual on the night of my arrival.
|
I love this picture of the guard checking his cell phone. There are four entrenches to the mausoleum: north, south, east and west. No one was on the eastern platform and I caught the guard falling out of character. The guard uniforms were patterned after European uniforms during a period of military reform. However, the army decided that they couldn't wear the Fez and pray so an English officer designed the new hats. |
Rim after dinner asleep on the couch
|
The City of Sale from the Kasbah Des Oudaias
The river Bou Regreg divides Rabat from Sale. The name is an alliteration, the river is suppose to make a "reg reg reg reg" sound of water flowing over the rocks-like a bubbling brook in English. The river divides Rabat from Sale. Sale was founded in the 10th century but really grew after 1492 by Spanish Muslims who were evicted by Isabella and Ferdinand. Khalid explained that there were three communities that were founded after 1492-those who wanted to trade, those who longed for a paradise lost, and those who wanted revenge. Sale was settled by those who wanted revenge and they turned to piracy, preying on Spanish and Portuguese ships returning from the Americas with gold and silver. He said that even today, it is the only place in Morocco that can be very discriminatory towards Christians. They always want to know where "your from." Apparently, many of the old homes in Sale are built in the Andalusian style, centered around a garden and a fountain. Many residents of Sale still retain the genetic trait of green eyes, which they brought with them from Spain.
We drove past the former Jewish Ghetto. Many Moroccan Jews were refugees from Spain after their eviction in 1492. There are about 2,000 Jews remaining in Morocco and most are extremely wealthy and own local companies. The King's chief economic adviser is a Jew. Most of the Jews emigrated to Israel, Europe or America-Mainly after the 1967 war. There are two functioning synagogues in the city still. One is a more modern one for ritual use and one is restored one which emigrates often return to in order to say a prayer where their fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers prayed.
|
Sunset in Kenitra right before the Iftar. Sharia' says you can break the fast when the sunlight is dim enough that you can't distinguish a black thread from a white thread.
|
We also went to the Kasbah Des Oudaias which overlooks the Bou Regreg and the Mediterranean. It was also settled by refugees from Spain but more of those individuals interested in trade. Later it evolved into a neighborhood filled with the families of soldiers who served the Sultan. Each of the streets is named after a tribe which was loyal to Sultan and originally settled in those streets. Today, its just a residential neighborhood with some tourist shops. The top use to be an arsenal but now is just on overlook-called the Platform du Semaphore (signal platform). At the base of the Kasbah is the Oudayas Surf Club, which the King was a founding member. There were surfers out today on the Mediterranean but the waves were not really high enough. |
My room-where I am living for the next five weeks.
|
The Dar Baraka house sits right outside the arsenal and the story is that the house contained a huge treasure trove of pirated silver and a cat found the hiding place, explaining the cat tiles on the side of the house. For a short time, this area formed the Republic of Bou Regreg which functioned as a true democratic republic in the Muslim world. It traded arms with England and Spain, established embassies and received consolers of foreign nations. The Republic was populated by Spanish Muslims who felt that they owed no allegiance to the Moroccan Sultan. (Sultan by the way means power in arabic-it use to be used as a phrase like the sultan of knowledge or the sultan of swing, but it eventually came to mean the sultan of politics-i.e. the political power. Piracy continued in this area until 1829 when the Austrians shelled Rabat as revenge for pirate actions. |
Officially the dinning room. In reality, the kids do their homework here at night. The family room has a large octagonal room in it and that is where we eat-communally around the table-without plates. Everyone just eats with their right hand and scoops stews up with bread.
|
This door opens to the oldest surviving mosque in Rabat-built the 12 century.
|
The Living room. Every Arab house i have ever been in is exactly the same decorating style-the living room has long couches that cover three walls which people sit and recline on while they eat and socialize.
|
Amine working on his French homework. He must master French to attend university-the language of instruction at University is French.
|
Mustafa Lionboui Part I
October 4, 2007
12:42 a.m.
I meet my partner today for the first time. We have been emailing each other since early July but I honestly didn't know what to expect. I feel so much better know that I have meet him. The family stay was the part that made me most nervous about the exchange. I knew that he was an English teacher for the last 20 years or so, has three children and has built a house. I am not sure what I was expecting-but I appear to have gotten so much more.
We spent most of the day together and ate the Iftar together. He had to leave before dinner to take the train home to have dinner with his family. He really made me feel at ease and he got rid of most of the nervousness I was feeling. He is funny, smart and very open. He has apparently finished his house and that is where I will be staying in Kenitra. His largest class this year is 45 and he spends three hours each week with each class-his class load is six classes. |
Rim getting her homework-she attends a local elementary school.
|
Le Tour Hassan Cat
October 3, 2007
|
Crime and Punishment Part I
October 8-10, 2007
Kenitra, Morocco
October 8, 2007
Mustafa's neighbor came over this morning and someone had broken into her house and stole her purse. She found her purse but all her money was gone.
October 8, 2007
He told me a story about a former student of his. This man married a young woman and worked in a bank. The wife started agitating to leave Morocco, they were having in-law problems and so they moved to America on a tourist visa. They married american citizens-he married an african-american woman and she married a syrian-american so that they could gain green cards and stay in America- basically marriage fraud. The wife told Mustafa's student that she was not coming back to him but was going to stay with the syrian-american. He killed both his moroccan wife and her syrian-american husband and is eligible for the death penalty in America. Apparently, there is a fund here in Kenitra to try and fund a lawyer for his defense-the king has even donated some money. Mustafa wrote a letter to President George Bush, by request of this foundation, trying to explain the cultural reason that a man might kill his wife and her lover her in Morocco if she went with another man. I wonder if that will come back to haunt him when he applies for a visa.
October 9, 2007
Apparently, crime is on the upswing during Ramadan. People are groggy-not paying attention and are often robbed during this time. Last year, a friend of Aniss was robbed of her cell phone during Ramadan by two guys. Also, the beggars are out in force during ]Ramadan - preying on peoples sympathy. They sit in the middle of the street and the crippled show their wounds.
October 10, 2007
Mustafa asked me about fights at our schools. He was surprised to learn that we have a police officer assigned to basically every high school and middle school in America. I explained that they were there really as community policing policy, and not to stop another Columbine-As he proposed. I prepared to get all defense about crime in America when he said that there was a fight in the courtyard about 15 years ago and one student did stab another student to death. I don't know of anyone who has been killed at WGHS.
October 11, 2007
Mustafa and I were talking about student discipline. Discipline is pretty lax during Ramadan-two students even showed up 20 minutes late for class and were allowed to be seated. He said that there are innocents among the students. One male student came to school with a knife and slit the vein in the his arm at his elbow of his elbow and then threatened to stab anyone who helped him Finally, he relented and was taken to a hospital. Last year, a female student made a rude remark to a male student and he head-butted her, cutting her forehead open and bruising her face. Both were given five days of out of school suspension. Later that evening, I told him about the Michael Devlin case and how shocking it was nation wide. He said they had a similar case in which a rural man was kidnapping young boys and murdering them. He asked me if Michael Devlin would be executed-because he knew some states still have the death penalty. I said no, he wasn't necessarily eligible and that I didn't agree with the death penalty anyway which lead to a discussion of execution as a method of punishment. Mustafa said that there use to be political executions but not anymore. The last execution he could recall was a man who kidnapped little girls, took pictures of them naked and then killed them. He was executed. |
Crescent Moon
Just for Christine
October 15, 2007
Kenitra, Morocco
|
The First Day of Shawwal
October 13, 2007
Kenitra, Morocco
Today is known as Eid al-Fitr-the Feast of Breaking the Fast or Eid
al-Sagheer-The Small Feast. (The big feast falls at the end of Hajj and
is known as Eid al Kabeer-the Big Feast where most families slaughter a
sheep in the street.) It marks the end of the month of Ramadan and
first day of the next month. The Ministry of Islamic Affairs-if they
see the crescent moon- declare Ramadan over which they did last night.
The closest equivalent is Easter and New Years rolled into one. Most
Moroccans attend mosque on this day and the sermon is suppose to be
significant. Many Moroccans also use it as a time to make changes in
their life for the better-stopping smoking, vow to give up drinking, or
start an exercise program.
Saadia, the director of the exchange in Rabat, described Ramadan as:
Ramadan experience in Morocco is quite unique. Most guide books tell
tourists to avoid Morocco during the holy month of dawn-to-dusk
fasting. Restaurants and cafes are shut all day, bars and night clubs
are shut all month. Everyone --from hotel staff and taxi drivers, to
shopkeepers and bank tellers, even policemen-- seems irritable and less
efficient. Normal daily life of carefree consumption and small
pleasures ceases to exist. Anyone eating, drinking or smoking in
daylight view of the public is made to feel like a criminal. Working
hours seem unpredictable and schedules are turned upside down. To make
matters even worse, no one can tell you for sure when the month will
begin or end, as this depends on the physical sighting of the crescent
moon. (Based on the lunar calendar, Ramadan moves back about ten days
in the Julian calendar every year. In a few more years it will once
more be in the torrid month of August.)
There are "secular" Moroccans who dread the sighting of the lunar
month's first crescent for many of the reasons mentioned above. For
lapsed Muslims, the holy month is not only a huge inconvenience, but
also annoyingly permeated with religiosity, and intense piety. National
and Arab satellite television is dominated by programs of Islamic
appeal, gone almost are the sensuous performances of half-dressed
dancers and singers. Radio stations seem to air nothing but Quranic
recitation or sermons focusing on the Next World. In the evenings, when
one can at last sit with friends in a cafe, mosques seem to be the
central attraction with masses of worshippers performing long, night
vigil prayers.
and I think that is pretty accurate. At least on the street-everyone
appears to follow the rules of Ramadan. I told him about individuals we
call "christmas-easter goers"- individuals who attend church only on
major holidays. He said that they have the equivalent-there called
"Leit-Friday goers." Last night, Mustafa knew the fast was over and he
needed to change some bills with me so that he would have money to give
the Zakat-the obligatory charity. He gave money to a boy in a wheel
chair and a woman begging with children. We did run into some kids who
were glue sniffers that he didn't give money to.
The whole family woke up late-except Mustafa who went to 7 a.m.
prayers-and had a big breakfast of jam, bread, tea, coffee and
pastries. |
Ramadan Part I
Rabat and Kenitra
October 3-6th
Ramadan is the 9th month of the Muslim calendar. The calendar is lunar so the dates for important events, like Ramadan, changes every year. In fact, Ramadan doesn't start till you see the new moon so many times, different Muslim countries are celebrating Ramadan a few days earlier or later than others. I was really excited when I found out I was going to be in Morocco for at least the last 10 days of this celebration. |
Jacques the Cat sleeping. Jacques also was happy that Ramadan was over. The schedule wore him out too.
|
An Iftar Invitation to Me from MACECE
|
Me playing with Jacques the cat.
|
The first night we tried to break the fast(Its called the Iftar)-eat the first full meal- at the hotel. However the hotel wasn't really expecting us so they really couldn't accommodate us. We wandered around till we found a cafe that would serve us dinner. |
Anass and Rim before breakfast.
|
Georgeanna Wielkoszewki_ and me at an Iftar
|
The neighborhood the morning of a-Fitr. The large trucks are a recent
addition to the neighborhood. Apparently, the drivers live in the
neighborhood but there is no where else to park their trucks so they
have parked them in the area's square.
|
The most significant thing about Ramadan is the dinning schedule. If you want to eat breakfast, you rise before sunrise (3:45 a.m. or so) and eat. You are forbidden to eat from sun up to sun down; nor can you drink anything or smoke. When Khalid was driving us around Rabat, he said the worse time to drive during Ramadan was the evening rush hour(s) because everybody is hungry, cranky, the smokers are going through withdrawal and generally everyone is on edge. Travelers, children, the ill and ill, soldiers engaged in war and pregnant women are excluded from this requirement. (Islam, like all religions, has loopholes for daily life. Muslims are required to pray 5 times a day but pilots and bus drivers are excluded if the prayer times occur during their workday.) |
They took away the dumpsters for the visit of the Governor. However,
after he left the dumpsters were never returned so the residents are
just dumping the trash where the dumpsters use to be.
|
Pigeon and Onions for Dinner
|
Mustafa and Anass after breakfast. Mustafa is wearing the traditional
Moroccan gown called a jaballa. If you look at the hat-it is
embroidered with the seal of Saudi Arabia - Mustafa purchased it when
he was on pilgrimage last year. On the inside of the hat, it says in
Arabic and English: Made in China.
|
Muslims break the fast after sundown-called the Iftar-which here in Morocco occurs 1 minute earlier each day. They normally have a harira, a tomato based soup with chickpeas and sometimes a dap of rancid butter. Its rather good. They also eat dates, milk, shebbakia-a sesame seed pastry and bread. I heard that even McDonalds serves harira during the month of Ramadan. Later in the evening, around 11-12, families gather for the Ramadan feast which is held every night. Ramadan is both a time for family celebrations and a time for Muslims to remember the poor and disenfranchised around the world. This may not seem like a sacrifice, but Moroccans eat their big meal at lunch. Most schools give the students a two hour lunch to return home, eat with their family and take a short nap.
On the second night, we had the Iftar at MACECE with our Moroccan counterparts. Again, it started with harira with dates, water, pastries and cheese. (exactly like the Happy Cow wedges you can get at Shop and Save) It was followed by a tajine of sheep brains. Normally, I don't have an objection to brains but this was served warm so the brains had a gooey, strange consistency that did not agree with me. I ate two slices of brains but left two on the plate. They moved the dinner up to 8:30 which consisted of a huge salad with cabbage (no lettuce -is it still a salad without lettuce?), shredded carrots, artichoke hearts, red cabbage, corn, tomatoes, zucchini and tuna. This was followed by a tajine of roasted pigeon with almonds and pearl onions which was very good. The catering company apparently was not happy that we had to have the main meal of the day so early, and not at 11-12 o'clock at night. I followed all the rules of Ramadan today and I understand the crankiness which individuals develop late into the day.
Here in Kenitra, the Iftar is not so elaborate. It is a family affair, Mustafa has a few dates and walks to the mosque for prayers to break the fast. The mosque is about 100 feet from his house. Afterwards, the whole family sat down and ate the exact same things including a glass of whole, unpasterized milk which I might want to stay away from. |
After a delicious lunch of roasted chicken-we headed to Plage Mehdiya
and had a family outing-walk along the beach. I actually expected a lot
more individuals out along the beach but Mustafa said you will see many
more tomorrow morning. Everyone takes a few days off after the end of
Ramadan-I am not actually sure if we return to school on Wednesday or
Thursday for classes-its up to the principal.
|
MCECE
The Moroccan-American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange
October 4, 2007
I slept in this morning. I really didn't get up till ten. I read and wrote last night after dinner till a little after midnight. There is nothing on TV-they don't get the BBC world-service so my choices are al-jazeria, sailing in german or the news in French. I watched some al-Jazeria to just try and get a feel of the news and what's going on around the world. al-Jazeria's newscaster opens his newscast with "a salaam alakum" We were welcomed by Daoud Casewit, executive secretary of MACECE and Ruth Petzold, Regional English Language Officer, US Embassy. MACECE is the Moroccan American Education Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange. The following is a summary of the lectures.
Reform at Secondary Education in Morocco: Implications and Future Prospects
Mohamed Melouk
Faculty of Education Sciences
Rabat
"The Learner is at the heart of all decisions"
In the late 1990's-the Ministry of Education in Morocco agreed on a series of reforms to be implemented countrywide. The education system is patterned on the French system which stresses equality in education, a national curriculum, regimentation and advancement by way of exams. They issued the National Charter or Education and Training seeking to reform the educational system around three core values:
• Skills and Knowledge - concentrating on science and technology
• Values of tolerance, human rights, democracy and a culture of diversity
• Job skills
The White Paper is a document concentrating on curriculum reform The educational community creates a profile and then teaches and tests to show competency in that profile. They have moved away from a 100% nation wide curriculum (meaning all students learn exactly the same thing-often on the same day) to one which:
• The Core Curriculum - 70% of the curriculum is nationwide
• Options - 15% of the curriculum is determined by the student-we would call it electives or extra curricular activities
• Regional Curriculum - 15% of the curriculum is devoted to issues in the local area like gender, human rights, the environment or globalization.
The textbooks themselves use to be a product of the Ministry of education, now they are collaborative efforts where often teachers create the texts and then submit them to the Ministry.
Foreign language instruction use to be only in the high school but has shifted down to the middle school. They would like to start language training as young as 1st grade but lack the money and the trained teachers right now. They have also emphasized learning specific content in a foreign language, like cultural, scientific or technological knowledge in the language being studied. Officially, arabic is the only language of instruction, but in many advanced subjects-the material is "translated" into French (officially a foreign language). French and Arabic are compulsory subjects here but 92-94% of the students would like to learn English. High school students also have the options to learn Spanish, German and Russian. Mustafa told me that all his students want to take English, but only those with the best grades get into the English classes and some students are forced to take these other languages because the teachers have to have jobs. The Ministry tried to figure out why English is so popular and ultimately they discovered that the reason don't matter, Moroccans want to learn English. There was a feeling that some individuals were anti-French because of their colonial legacy.
Another important change in foreign language instruction is the emphasis on cross cultural dialogue. They want to try and teach their students to use the language in an authentic way which has proven difficult.
Two major challenges face the teaching of English in Morocco-and probably any foreign language. The first is to try and get younger and younger people introduced to english in an environment where they are exposed to little english outside of music (I haven't really seen any English books, TV, ect...) and therefore get little real world practice. It is hard to create a body of authentic language instructional materials when the students hear it for three hours in a school week. The other major challenge seems to be trained teachers and money. This is revealed in the class size-Mustafa's largest class is 45 students this semester.
Daoud Casewit, executive secretary of MACECE, expressed an opinion that Moroccans are particular gifted in learning languages because of the rich linguistically stew they live in. A students family may speak 2-3 dialects of berber at home, watch egyptian soap operas, the news has programs in German, Spanish and French and they learn both moroccan and modern standard arabic at school. He spoke of students who discover a grant to study oversees picking up a language in 6 months, getting the grant and heading off to study.
Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Lebanon have all adopted the "Bologna" method of language instruction. I don't really know what that means, but it seems to be a very progressive curriculum.
What was so interesting in this lecture was the Moroccan teachers protest at the end. They stated that over the last few years, the time they spend with their students has been reduced from 5 hours a week to 3 hours a week of language instruction. One stated "i feel I am only preparing my students to pass an exam"-sounds a lot like MAP testing! There was a feeling that the materials were too artificial and students complain if they skip over something in the text, fearing that it will be on the end of the year exam.
Languages of Morocco
Karim Bensoukas
University of Mohamed V
This guy was incredible!!! He is a linguist who studies the languages of Morocco. He seemed young for such a gifted linguist
Modern Standard Arabic is officially the language of instruction. In reality, its not a fluid language but one that has been "planned." Literally, scholars sit down and make up words for words that didn't exist in classical arabic (the language of the Quran) like nuclear or internet. It is officially used in agreement, education, media and significant amount of literature published in this. There are no native speakers of MSA in Morocco, it is learned as an academic language at school. Moroccans both revere the language as the language of Islam and reject it as the language of modernization.
Moroccan Arabic is the first tongue of 60% of the population. Moroccan Arabic has migrated and changed over time, picking up vocabulary and structures from french, spanish, berber and other african languages. The pronunciation is different that MSA. However, Moroccans can understand and often speak close to native fluency Syrian and Egyptian Arabic because of television and radio. The reality is that most teachers teach in this language, but the tests are written in Modern Standard Arabic.
Amazighe is often referred to as Berber, a Hamitic-Semitic language. It appears to be an offshoot of other Semitic languages, like arabic and hebrew. About 40% of the population use this language as their primary tongue. It is all over North Africa, including Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Mali. There are three subgroups in Morocco-Tarifit spoke in southern Morocco, Tamazight spoken in central Morocco and Tashlhit spoken in northern Morocco. They are not mutually intelligible. While not being an official language, the King will at times use the language for speeches. It is also taught in some primary schools. The big step forward is the reintroduction of the Tifinaghe script, which is a pre-islamic script unrelated to arabic or latin. It looks a little like greek to me-literally. I had read that there were going to have all primary school kids learn berber as part of an initiative started by the king but I haven't seen any evidence of that.
French: French is official a foreign language. However, it appears that the constitution is written in French. The 1996 Constitution preamble eads "Le Royaume du Maroc, Etat musulman soverain, dont la langue officielle est l'arabe, constitue une partie du Grand Maghreb Arabe." I thought that a document proclaiming the fact that Morocco is an arabic speaking country in French was very bizarre French was the language of the colonial power, and Karim described a kind of love-hate relationship much of Morocco has with French. Some don't like to use french because of its association with colonialism while others view it as a beautiful language. Students in public schools start to learn French around age 7-8 while some private schools start as young as pre-school. Originally, major subjects like geography, philosophy, history, math and science were all taught in French. This was still true for philosophy until relatively recently. French remains the language of prestige (It marks an individual as educated) and the language of Banking, Finance, medicine and technology. If you enter a Moroccan bank, all the computer systems will be in french and bank officers prefer to discuss financial matters in French. Also, while primary and high school education is done officially in Arabic, when you get the college the language of instruction changes to French. Another Moroccan told me that often those who use French on the street are doing so for personal or political reasons-at a minimum they want to be viewed as educated or as modern-secular.
English is growing as the new dominate foreign language in Morocco. Most students don't encounter English till 9th grade, but some new private schools start English in pre-school and english the primary language of instruction. There has also been a real growth in English tutors.
They do teach other languages at the college level, like Hebrew, Persian, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Urdu. There only at the college level. What I am so fascinated by is how all these languages mix together and what language is used in a speech or decree is highly political.
Morocco Economics
Driss Ben Alis
Faculty of Law, University of Mohamed V
This lecture was funny, topical, engaging and I couldn't understand any of it. The economist did not speak English so he gave his lecture in French. The others told me that it was excellent. I think it was a generational thing-scholars today are functional in at least French, English and Arabic. This appears to be a more recent development. However, while he was lecturing-one of the two MACECE cat's wandered in. It appears that the organization cares for at least two cats who are given the run of the house.
Moroccan Literature
Youssouf Amine El Alamy
Faculty of Letters, Kenitra
This guy was rather fascinating. He is a professor at Ibn Tofail University in Kenitra. He is also the author of numerous novels of experimental Moroccan Literature. He is also a conceptual artist and spoke about Moroccan literature. Please excuse any mistakes, misspellings or basic failures of this report. I tried to keep up and spell everything correctly, but I don't speak french so this is more of a collection of a number of peoples notes.
Style in Moroccan Literature
• The Novel. The novel is a western invention but has been adapted and borrowed by all cultures at this point. However, the novel in Morocco has taken on the characteristics of a storyteller, where the narrator will directly address the audience-this is a very postmodern feature of American literature but involving the audience is a skill any good storyteller will use. Also, storytellers stand in the middle of a circle-equal distance from all. This implies no hierarchy, because no one is at the top and all listeners are equal distance from the storyteller.
• The Autobiography. In the west, the Autobiography grows out of the tradition of Roman Catholic confession. The first true autobiography is the Autobiography of St. Augustine-detailing his theft of fruit as a child. However, in Morocco, the autobiography makes the "I" collective-the confessor becomes a spokesperson for his community or generation. La Me´moire tatouie´or The Tattooed Memory published by Hatibi is an example of this kind of Literature. It is published in 1969 and is a novel that ends in a play.
• The Father-Son Relationship. This becomes a major theme of post-colonial literature where it explores the conflict between father and son. (Maybe representative between the conflict between Father-France and the Son-Morocco?) In these conflicts, the son always sides with the mother against the father. A reviewer once titled this phenomenon "Oedipus is Moroccan."
Archetypes
Second he spoke on the three main archetypes you find in Moroccan literature.
• The Character of the Fool. Fools can express things which others can't-they can break taboos and offer political messages that their not responsible for because they are fools! Think of the fool character in Shakespeare or The Dwarf by Par -Kais as the Moroccan Romeo.
• The Prostitute: Prostitution is viewed as a form of insanity-you have to be sort of insane to sell yourself, they are not a person in their right mind. The main character in Heruda is a prostitute.
• Children: again children are not responsible for what they say or what questions they ask so they can ask what is forbidden.
History of Moroccan Literature
• 1949-1954: Ethnographic Literature-literature devoted to documenting everyday Moroccan life, like The Amber Rosary or The Magic Box by Ahmed Safrioui.
•
• 1954: Le Passe´Simple(The Simple Past) is published by a francophone novelist, Driss Chraibi. It is an autobiography set in the city of Fez. It is the first novel in which the bad guy is not the colonizers-the French-but a Moroccan father who terrorizes his son. It is the first novel which criticizes Moroccan culture and caused an outrage-forcing the author to make public apologies. It represents the first attempt by Moroccans to look honestly and critically at their own culture and not blame all the failings on the French.
•
• 1954-1962: Acculturation Questions in Literature. This is the period right after independence and many Moroccan writers were exploring questions of an Epistemological nature-What is knowledge, how do we know, what does it mean to be Moroccan.
•
• 1962-1970's: Literature dealing with Social and Economic Changes. Khalid explained on our first day that Morocco was a country that was reticent to change. When vaccinations were introduced, they had a difficult time getting citizens to use them because they had never had them before. It was not until the royal family stepped in did individuals accept vaccinations. Literature of this period often dealt with these issues: For example La re´clusion Solitaire (The Solitary Imprisonment) dealt with legal immigration (many Moroccans during this time went to France to earn a living) revolves around a legal immigrant in Paris who literally lives in his suitcase. Other novels of this genre were Agadir by Mohammed Khayreddine (a berber writer) or Molega.
• 1980's: One major writer emerges, Edmoud Omrane who does not start writing till age 60 He is still alive today and is in his late 80's living in Rabat. He write extensively about the Jewish community in Morocco. See Parcouis Immobile
• 1990's Two major themes emerge in Moroccan literature. The first is Moroccans writing stories that are not about Morocco and often have no Moroccans in them. I ete a Stoc´holm (A Sumer in Stockholm) is about Swedes in Sweden while Lánge avengle (The Blind Angel) is set among the Italian Mafia. Many moroccan intellectuals criticized this literature as not reflective of Morocco but they responded that they were writing to "free Moroccan literature form its navel gazing." Another major theme to emerge from this time is the use of humor and satire. Novels have appeared which parody 1001 Nights-Les Nuits d´Azed by Laracui, set in modern day Morocco, Paris Mon Bled about a third generation Moroccan teenager living in the suburbs of Paris (its written in a hip hop syntax-the author-El Alamy even recorded five songs as a soundtrack to the novel) or The Diary of an Illegal Immigrant, written by a arabic newspaper colonist who smuggled himself into Europe as an illegal immigrant. The humor and satire has primarily been a forum for social criticism. Also see Fille du vent, Le Concert des Clackes, I Marocain a New Y, Canibal or L´aller et le retour by Ferage and Tu ne traversoras pas le de´troit by Céline Jé.
•
• Today. Three major trends have emerged. The first is a "gay literary scene" which young Moroccans have been claiming their homosexuality. While no where as developed as American gay literature, it is still a significant trend in an Islamic country. Novels like Uni vie á triois by Bahaa Tarabolssi about a menage á trois about a homosexual affair where the wife plays the role o the third. Also Le LRouge de la bouche or Chroniques d´l enfant by Rachid O.-notice he only uses his initial not his name on his book. The second trend has been Prison literature, written by political prisoners. When King Hassan II died in 1999, a number of political prisoners were granted amnesty. Ahwed Marzouki was an Army officer who plotted against the the king in 1971 and spent 18 years in Tazmammart prison. Another was The Bridegroom, a very funny collection of letters a fictional prisoner writes home to his mother-very critical of the government in a very humors way or Une Prison de la Mort. There is even a comic strip that is based in a prison. Another major development at this time is the development of Moroccan publishing houses in Casablanca and Fez. These companies heavily favored young Moroccan writers.
Youssouf's Current Work
Miniatures is a collection of 50 written "snapshots" of individuals. He the created 50 collage portraits from magazines and newspapers about each individual. It was published as an art book-then a gallery in Casablanca wanted to display the collages and he agreed so that you could go to an art gallery and "see a book."
Nomads is his current book, twenty-two chapters that are designed to be displayed all over a city which you go and "see" the book. He is planning to display this book in Rabat and Rotterdam in July of 2008-however he is still waiting on approval for the Rabat installation. The idea that is that nomads only survive is they remain nomadic-if you can't travel you can't be a nomad.
Youssouf Amine El Alamy is publishing two of his books in English in April of 2008 by Lexington Press. I am looking forward to reading them.
Civil Society in Morocco
Zahra Tamouh
University of Mohamed V
The first Moroccan woman to present to us. She has been a leading feminist, community organizer, and historian. She spoke on the civil society in Morocco.
After 1956, the government and the main opposition party attempted to control the civli society through professional organizations (al Hantat), traditional organizations (la Jamaa) and the religious groups descendant from Sufism. The current dynasty has its roots in the Sufi movement The government created organizations to accomplish this, like the Moroccan Women's National Union which often took on the role of the welfare state-providing aid to the poor.
All of this came to a head in the 1980's. The World Bank insisted that the Moroccan government cut its social funding (the Structural Adjustment Programe). Combined with a growing population (the country's population was around 8 million at the time of independence in 1956 while today the the country is home to about 30 million), unemployment (running about 40%), a more highly educated population and internal migration from rural to city (about one in ten persons lived in a city at independence while today about 55% of the population live in rural areas and 45% live in the cities today) created conflicts and tensions in civil society. Non Govermental Organizations, NGO's, were formed at this time to address the issues of Human Rights, Democracy, Modernity, Secularism, Islamist and Diversity.
Morocco saw the entrance of women into the civil society arena during this time also. These women were the beneficiary of the 1956 generation, women who were well educated and graduated from institutions of higher learning becoming doctors, lawyers, university professors, ect... They described a "schizophrenia in our (Moroccan) society," the role of women in the home vs. the role of women in the workforce. Many of these women formed organizations, like the Groupe 8 Mars (the 8th of March-world wide women's day) to raise awareness and lobby for change. While feminism was strong in Canada, France and America-the model adopted by many Moroccan NGO's was that of Latin America where you saw many rural women working to change the lives of poor women.
This work has seen results. NGO's had started advocating for a change in the Family Law Code in 1992 and in 2004 it was reformed (interestingly, 100,000 marched in favor of the legislation in Rabat while 200,000 marched in Casablanca against the reforms). The new law code is considered one of the most progressive in the Islamic world, restricting polygamy. (Turkey and Tunisia have completely outlawed polygamy) It also granted a significant expansion of rights and protections for women in Morocco.
The 1990's saw Moroccan civil society organizations-like Non Govermental Organizations NGO's- develop a stronger local identity with both the government and the private sector. They also were able to network with world wide organizations at conferences like the one in Beijing concentrating on the Status of Women or the Istanbul conference concentrating on the future of children. Zahra mentioned that still today, a major concern is illiteracy. Still today, 35% of men and 55% of women are illiterate. The rate for women can run as high as 90-95% in some rural areas.
Because of this and a philosophy of "the neighborhood solution," Morocco has seen the growth of NGO's dealing with formerly taboo issues. The Solidarity Association, formed in 1985, deals with the social stigma of unmarried mothers. Other NGO's have been addressing the problem of violence against women in Morocco. Do Not Touch My Child, addressing the issue of child sexual abuse, has only been around 2-3 years but has grown phenomenally. They have also seen the importation of successful ideas from outside Morocco-Al Amana is a moroccan organization concentrating on micro-loans and micro-credit in rural areas. |
Abdelkader and Rachida-Mustafa's wife-walking along the beach.
|
Director of Studies Mr. Alazami Hassani, me and the Principal of Abdelmake Assaadi Lycee Mustapha Marouch´
|
MACECE
The Moroccan-American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange
October 5, 2007
Women's Rights, Islam and the Moroccan Family
Stephanie Willman
Global Rights
Rabat
She was probably the most dynamic speaker of the day. She is an american lawyer who runs an NGO devoted to women and family issues in Morocco. She came to speak to us about the family code in Morocco-Family code deals with marriage, divorce, child custody, alimony, dowry, etc... Global Rights has an office in Morocco which oversees Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. All of these countries, in fact all the countries in the middle east have their legal code based on Sharia-except Turkey. The criminal, tort, administrative, tax and civli courts are all based on the French code, but Morocco has based theirs on Malaki jurisprudence and specifically requires that if a judge encounters a new situation not discussed in the legal code-he should look back at old Malaki rulings.
The first Family Code was introduced by Royal Decree in 1977 and in the late 1990's-both the government and NGO's were interested in reforming the legal code. Initially the cabinet attempted reforms but there was a backlash among the population so they backed down and the King called for a royal Commission made of NGO's, legal scholars, religious scholars, etc... After thirty months of deliberation, the king proposed the reforms in speech in October of 2003. Parliament took up the issue and after 110 amendments-NOT by royal decree, the law was passed and took effect immediately in February of 2004. Local NGO's were a huge lobbying force in favor and the populations disgust of the Casablanca terrorist bombings silencing the Islamist parties allowed the law to pass. This is an overview of family law in Morocco at this time:
Major Changes
. Marriage age for both men and women was moved to 18. Before this, a woman could marry as young as 15-this set a higher and equal standard.
. Ended the wal-a marital tutor requirement. Before, women couldn't sign their own marriage contract but a wal did. The Wal is male, normally the brides father, who is responsible for the bride. It did create weird situations where a 15 year old boy would have to sign to allow his widowed mother to marry.
. Polygamy
. Allowed women to insert a monogamy clause into the marriage contract-forbidding her husband from marring a second wife.
. If a husband doesn't have this clause and wants another wife-he must inform both his current wife and his potential wife of each other and must show to a court of law an "exceptional and necessary condition" exists. (If you think about it, an exceptional and necessary condition should only happen once in a marriage-many legal scholars now believe that Morocco has basically outlawed having more than two wives but there have been no rulings as of yet) The husband must also prove to the court that he can financially support two wives equally.
Minor Changes
Divorce
. created two new divorce categories-mutual consent and irreconcilable differences
. men are no longer considered head of the household but husband and wife are equal in the eyes of the law
. ended the duty of obedience in marriage which had become an issue in domestic violence-the court can not force a wife to return to her husband
. If the husband is going to Repudiate his wife-he must do so in court, not ex parte. There were a number of highly sensational cases where the husband went to court without his wife's knowledge and repudiated her/got a divorce. She comes home one night and finds the locks have been changed. Moroccan law views failure to appear as consent to whatever takes place in court. The cases may be only anecdotal but the law now requires both parties to be notified. There have been problems with fraud in this area-a husband asks for a divorce and the wife doesn't show up (because she doesn't know he's divorcing her.) The court issues a supena to the wife but the husband provides a false address.
. A woman may still ask for a divorce in five cases: ill treatment, if the husband takes an oath of abstense, he has abandoned her, in prison, unable to have children or consummate the marriage
. Alimony: a wife may only get alimony during the "wait and see period." Islam requires a woman to not remarry for somewhere around three months so that there is no question about the paternity of any future child) Why this is significant is that if a man repudiates his wife, the wife is entitled to damages (I assume this means she is 'damaged' in some way)-if she is not present she can't speak in her own defense.
. Khula-the wife provides some sort of financial support to the husband if he repudiates her-like a bribe for a divorce. Sometimes, a husband will just stick it out to try to get some money.
Children
. Children use to be automatically given to the mother, then all the mother's relatives, then the father. This has changed so that primarily they go to the mother, if it fails, it goes to the father.
. Around age 13-15, the children have some say in which parent they stay with-many States in the US fail to have this feature
. The "Family Home" goes to whoever has custody of the children
. There are two separate child support payments: one for the cost of housing and another for everything else
. Women may loose custody if they demonstrate bad morals, move so far away that a father can't exercise his "tutorship" or the mother remarries. They use to loose custody automatically now the father has one year to seek custody, if he fails to do so, he looses custody perminately.
For more information, see www.globalrights.org for more information. They have the whole family code on line and you can get a weekly electronic newsletter on
Security Issues in Morocco
Theodore O Holmes, III
US Diplomatic Security Service.
I subtitled this lecture "how not to get killed by terrorists while practicing people to people diplomacy for the US government." Mr. Holmes (I call him mister because he is a big, thick, tough looking guy) is brought in to give a safely lecture to all individuals associated with the embassy and our program falls under the Regional Language Officer in the United States Diplomatic Corp. Mr. Holmes is a member of the diplomatic security service, about 1420 worldwide officers, ho oversee the security of embassies, Consulate, all the employees and to help any americans in-country. Before joining the state department, he was a D.C. police officer "protecting them (congressmen) from themselves was a full time job."
On the positive side, Morocco is probably safer than most American cities. On the Negative side, there is a terrorist problem. In October and November of last year, a number of terrorist groups in North Africa banded together and swore allegiance to Al Quida in the Magrihb. This is not only an oath of fidelity to Al Quida';s mission, it is also a plea by these groups for help-mainly money and training. The good part is that US intelligence has detected no inflow of money or training to Morocco. They have detect that in Algeria, and there have been some pretty bad attacks in Algeria-terrorists attacking state symbols like embassies, police and army facilities, government offices.
It is his opinion that terrorism is not Moroccan. He felt that most Moroccans like the fact that they can choose to be modern or traditional; liberal or conservative; secular or religious and respect the choice that others make. However in March of 2006, there were fourteen suicide bombers in Casablanca. Five to six were successful in detonating themselves, the rest were captured or shot by the police. During that month, only Iraq saw more suicide bombings. The police were able to prevent one group-they had them under surveillance, trapped them in a Casablanca apartment and three blew themselves up and the last one was shot by the police. One of these terrorists blew himself up on the roof, and much of the homemade liquid explosive did not explode but was thrown all over the roof. When the police walked across the roof, the little droplets of explosive were going off as they stepped on them. Thats was TSA is going through your luggage looking for liquids and gels. Four ounces would definitely blow a hole in and airplane fuselage. During the course of the investigation, the Moroccan police discovered that all the bombers were native Moroccans (this is what upset the Moroccans most) and were targeting the American Consulate, the American Language Center which are symbols of America in Morocco. Probably the most disturbing thing was that these are places not frequented by Americans, but by Moroccans wanted to travel to America (they had planned to bomb the Consulate visa line-the americans work in the back processing the applications) and Moroccans who want to learn English.
Eloise was concerned about the bombing at an internet cafe in Casablanca during this time. Apparently, the terrorist had strapped the explosives to his body and went to the internet cafe to get further instructions. The owner of the cafe saw that he was on a Jihadist website and told him to "get out." There was a scuffle between the bomber and the owner and the bomb went off-killing the bomber and wounding the owner. Apparently, his target was a discotheque frequented by foreigners.
Apparently there was an attempted attack just last month in Mednis (sp?). A young man brewed his own liquid explosive mixture and either tried to board a buss and blow himself up or hurl the bomb onto the bus. Whatever the case, he shook it too much and the mixture denoted prematurely - saving the bus but killing the would-be bomber.
Four Terrorist-Criminal Tips
BE AWARE: Most criminals and terrorists pick easy targets. Most crime and terrorism in Morocco is by stealth-rarely does the terrorist/criminal directly confront his victim. They are looking for people that are not paying attention, not aware of their surroundings,
BE UNPREDICTABLE: If you go out and get your newspaper at 6:30 every morning-if someone watches you they know exactly where you will be at 6:30 in the morning. Being late or early to work sometimes is an excellent thing. He told the story of an American diplomat in Athens who every morning would go out and look up and down the street and all around his car before he left for the embassy. As it turns out, a terrorist group targeted him for kidnapping but they were caught by local police before they were successful. During police interrogation, the terrorists said that they could never get close to him to snatch him in the back of a van-he was always unpredictable and always looking around. The police then went to the diplomat to inform him of the arrests and what they discovered. The police inspector told the diplomat that he was doing an excellent job of personal security, and the diplomat replied that "I was just checking to see if someone had stolen my hubcaps during the night."
HAVE A PLAN: I have a very simple plan. If something bad happens, I am running away. If given the choice between doing something mildly dangerous and really dangerous, I promised Christine I would choose the mildly dangerous option. In case of disaster, pull out my emergency $100.00 and hire a driver to drive me to Rabat. Its a simple plan, but I think it will work.
TAKE ADVICE: mainly from the locals. There are cultural norms and if as a foreigner, I may not be able to identify what is "abnormal." I need to listen to my host family and other Moroccans. Women don't walk around alone after dark so if one approaches me I should run away. |
The family portrait-the Atlantic Ocean is in the background
|
The houses in Mehdiya are rarely lived in today-they are mostly rented
out of the summer season. They rent for approximately 1000Dh a
month-about $125.00.
|
Abdelmalek Assaadi Lychee
Kenitra, Morocco
October 6
As I stated earlier, I arrived during Ramadan so the kids only go half days. They were in class when I arrived at Abdelmalek Assaadi Lychee in downtown Kenitra. The normal school day runs from 8-12, a two hour lunch in which the students return home, and 2-6 for the afternoon session. |
Abdelkader and Rim and the end of the ocean front walk.
|
Mustafa in front of Abdelmalek Assaadi Lycee
|
The school was built in 1931 and was staffed by French teachers and attended by primarily French students with a few wealthy Moroccans let in. There are 55 classrooms, 107 teachers, 25 administrators and 2000 students-both male and female. Mustafa introduced me to the Principal and the Coordinator of the school. The teachers only are at school when they are teaching-they do all their grading and planning at home. They only have to teach a total of 18 hours a week. Mustafa gave me a tour of the grounds and I meet a number of the teachers. The buildings look like they were built in the 1930's and little has been done to them since. Mustafa said that the Ministry of Education is slowly withdrawing support for public education, encouraging the private sector. This is reflected in the fact that the Ministry basically invests nothing in infrastructure-the windows on the school look like they were last painted in the 1950's. A teacher is issued a chalk board-probably an original, some chalk and empty desks and that is it. |
Moroccan Joke
October 12, 2007
Kenitra, Morocco
A man returns home after a heavy night of drinking but when he gets to his apartment he can't get the key into the lock. He keeps slamming the key into the door and the noise wakes up his neighbors who come out and tell him "give us the key and we'll open the door for you." He says "No, the problem isn't the key, its the building that keeps moving-hold the building still." |
Abdelmalek Assaadi Lycee between classes
|
READ MORE-RETURN TO MY HOMEPAGE AND CLICK ON MOROCCO BLOG PART III
|
We toured the building and it is basically set up like Webster. The different areas of study are taught in separate halls. It is an open campus in which students only on campus when they need to be. It appears that there is only one gate in and out of the school so they just lock it after class starts-so no one is really late to class. It is more formal than in the US-the students called Mustafa "Monsieur" and they all rose, as a class, when we entered the room. I met teachers of all departments including two female philosophy professors. Philosophy is a required class-ITS ABOUT TIME-for both math/science and letters baccalaureate candidates. Every year in school ends with a big exam-which you have to pass and determines next years course of study and college prospects. The results of the baccalaureate exam determine your college future-where you will go and what you will study. Mustafa's son is attending and studying Math and Information Technology. We visited the spanish teacher who had two students that day-he has 14 enrolled but all 14 are repeating the class-having failed last years exam-and 12 were fed up and didn't show up. Also, because their test scores were low in middle school, these students were excluded from taking English. It seems to me that if you do poorly one year, you get stuck in a death spiral which seems impossible to escape. |
The computer lab at Abdelmalek Assaadi Lycee
|
They don't have really any technology to speak of-there one computer lab has about 10 computers which are easily 10 years out of date. They have no projectors and a lot of schools are not wired into the internet. As one teacher put it, Morocco has "humanware" not software or hardware. The Ministry of Education is very interested in incorporating more computer technology into the classroom but they don't have the funds to cover it. The science labs are not much better-the physics labs were still using amp-meters and voltmeters hand constructed by French Physic teachers in the 1930's. |
Amp-meter and Voltmeter from France in the 1930's. The town was originally named Layautey after a Resident General who founded it to draw some of the trade away from Meknes and Fez. The original name of the school was the College de Port Lyautey
|
French teacher and treasurer of the Parents Association Mr. Chadli Mohammed, me and physics teacher Mr. Khiati
|
First Impressions of Kenitra
October 6, 2006
11:29 p.m.-1:24 a.m.
Kenitra is not a very old city by Moroccan standards. It was developed by Resident General Lyautey during the French occupation and is similar to St. Louis in that is a small (about 375,000) and on a river. When I looked at google earth Mehdiya showed up very clearly but the photos of Kenitra were blurry. The most exciting thing going on right now is that the bus drivers are on strike.
After visiting the school, Mustafa took me on a small tour of the sites in town. The downtown looks like most Mediterranean cities, tall whitewashed apartment buildings with shops and cafe's on the first floor. We drove through the "club district"-an area that use to cater to Americans when the American military here-both an air force base and a navel base. Both were turned over to the Moroccan military after the first Gulf War. |
We drove down to the fish market and the fishermen had returned with the days catch, lots of sardines. They also were selling eels and i even saw some sort of ray for sale. It really looked more like a wholesale market than one catering to everyday moroccans. We also drove to Mehdiya, the beach community 9km away. Kenitra is suppose to have some great surfing and there were three surfers out in the approximately 3 foot waves. We saw a major employer here, the cannery which specializes in sardines and smelt.
After the Iftar, Mustafa drove me and his son Amine downtown for the evening Ramadan stroll. I had mentioned that I liked snails so we went to a street vender selling fresh hot snails and he bought three bowls. The snails were cooked in salt water with bay leaves and eaten strait out the shells with a toothpick. They were excellent. There is a fair which takes place every Ramadan with mainly stuff from China being sold. I purchased a couple of CD's of Moroccan music and then we just walked around. It seemed that everyone was on the street. |
Lazy Sunday
October 7
Kenitra
We picked up a fellow teacher at the high school who is very interested in local history. His name is Abdelmajid Saligane (Saligane is a corruption of Senegal in Moroccan Arabic) and his a history/geography teacher and the president of the parents association. We drove out to the coast to visit the Kasbah de Mediya. A Kasbah is a walled city. It is similar to the German word Borge, like Strasbourg. The word is the origin of the word borgiouses, meaning simply the individual who has the right to live in the borge. The site was originally settled by the Phoenicians around 500 B.C. and was eventually taken by the Romans. It falls out of history until the Islamic invasions. It is then taken by the Portuguese in 1515. The Portuguese were forced out by the Spanish in 1630's and finally liberated in 1681. The area falls in and out of history simply because no significant historical events take place. The story is that berber tribes got fed up with the Spanish presence and they took the Kasbah and gave it as a gift to the Sultan. It was restored by Moulay Ismail-the founder of the Alaouite dynasty. The current King is the 19th Alaouite ruler. The name Mediya is derived from the word for "gift" in arabic. The berber tribes wore black slippers before this victory but afterwards changed them to yellow, which are worn all over Morocco today. The governor's palace still remains, but in ruins only. The spanish turret that oversaw the entrance to the river was in little better shape. Only the Mosque and the gatehouse have been restored. The hamam was blocked off and many rooms you couldn't figure out what they were for. |
The gatehouse of the Kasbah de Mediya which was rebuilt by the government. The area was damaged during the American landings in 1942 as part of the Allied invasion of North Africa. Directly behind me was the village of Mediya which use to be devoted to ironworkers who created weapons for the Sultan. |
We then drove down and along the Lac du Sidi Bourhaba-a lake which the Moroccan government has turned into a nature reserve. The lake is on the other side of a step hill which means the lake is fresh water, while the Atlantic ocean is just a kilometer away. The lake is significant because it is a resting place for birds migrating form Scandinavia, France and England during the winter to West Africa and Senegal in the winter and back home again in the summer.
|
Kenitra Prison-famous for housing political prisoners but "things are getting better" as one Moroccan teacher said.
|
A display showing the pattern and difficulty of bird migration to Morocco and Agadir.
|
We walked up from the lake to the Réserve De Sidi Bou Ghaba-an environmental and nature education center in the bird habitat. It is Société Protectrices des Animaux et de la Nature (SPANA)-an NGO devoted to animal welfare and nature conservation. (For more information see www.spana.org.ma) They were not really open, so they pulled the 'there's an american who would like to see it thing and we got a nice tour and some posters afterward. |
The best part of the tour was a final display showing all the things that are not biodegradable.
|
Afterwards, we went for a walk along the Plage Mehdiya-Mustafa and I visited here yesterday and I mixed up words in my limited French-Plage means beach and I confused it with Pest which means plague or illness." I thought the Plage d'Nations, a beach not far from here, was called the Plague of Nations because of all the foreigners descending like a plague (its really named the beach of nations because of all the foreign diplomats and their families often visit here from Rabat). The waves were higher today and people were doing some suffering. Kids were playing soccer and a few were sunbathing. Life goes on even during Ramadan. |
Me in the doorway of the governors personal house. The courtyard, now destroyed, would have had tile-work and a fountain in the center. The building has four doorways, each entering to a suite of rooms The story is that the Governor had four wives and each one stayed in a separate suite. |
Abdelmajid Saligane and Mustapha Lionboui in front of the entrance to the Governor's Palace.
|
When we left the beach, we were driving down the main drag and a bunch of goats ran out into the traffic. We slammed on our brakes and gentled tapped a baby goat. This picture is evidence the goat was still alive when we left. We ended the day at the fish market which Mustafa purchased some perch for dinner. |
Jacques with Mustafa's daughter Rim.
October 6, 2007
|
Kenitra Cat
October 6, 2007
|
The First Day Of Class
Abdelmalek Assaadi Lycee
Kenitra, Morocco
October 8, 2007
Today is the first day I attended class at Abelmalek Assaadi Lycee (or college). Abelmalek Assaadi was a Saadi King, I couldn't find out who he was while I was in the States. You see some streets named after Americans, I saw a Roosevelt Blvd. and an Abraham Lincoln Square in Rabat. Since this is Ramadan, classes are shortened so four classes went from 9 a.m. till noon. |
Mustafa teaches English 1-3 so all his students have had at least one year of English in middle school. He teaches in both "streams:" science/math and letters. He thinks the science/math students are better at learning English than his letters students. |
A nod out to Nelly-a St. Louis native via Kenitra
|
At Webster, we have a program called "character education," the idea being that we will instill certain values into the students. Here, the character education is much more explicit. They teach the content of the class, English language and vocabulary, along with the values the Ministry of Education has decided on. In English 3 today, last nights reading in English was on stereotypes. So he lead discussion on what a stereotype is then drew up a list of positive and negative stereotypes for:
Argentina: they are good football (soccer) players and good at the tango but they have a bad educational system, are drug dealers and constantly involved in conflicts.
Britain: drink lots of tea, eat pudding, are rich and their weather is often foggy. On the bad side, the English are boring, poor, hooligans and often irritable.
Italy: are handsome, romantic, elegant, religious spaghetti eaters who make good gladiators. On the bad side, they are racist, aggressive and mafia ridden.
America: are fat from eating too many hamburgers, have bad nutrition, are warlike, ignorant of other countries, have lots of weapons, religious troublemakers (There was some debate if the troublemakers were just politicians or the population) who like petrol and everything to be big: big cars, big roads, big dogs. On the upside, we are the first movie producers (we were not, I think the English were), have sexy firefighters, are good at basketball and have good teachers.
They all turned to me to confirm these stereotypes but class ended before we could get to far.
I saw this explicit teaching of values in English 1 (this is the first year of the Lycee for these students, but they all took at least a year of English at the middle school-they were the equivalent of a sophomore in America). Part of the lesson was the use of offensive words in English, specifically fat, old and ugly. This is when I understood I am not an foreign language teacher-I tried to explain that it is offensive to call someone old but not offensive if someone calls themselves old-that the offense often comes because someone calls another old when they are not. A student kinda bailed me out by telling the story of seeing the picture of a friends mother and saying that the mother looked around 45-50 but she was in reality around 35. It hurt her friends feelings. Another Moroccan teacher told me about teaching about "human rights" in her English class and how she molded the lesson around Martin Luther King, Jr. In another English class, the students discussed what they liked about the school: studying with friends, the teachers, the subjects and what they didn't like: dirty classrooms, the math teacher, the new rules about women having to wear smocks (this is not a new rule, only a new rule for them because its their first year at the lycee), the lack of a library, the lack of computers and the rule that prevents them from using their cell phones on campus. Improved human rights has been a hallmark of the new King Mohammed VI's rule and this is being explicitly taught in the classroom. |
READ MORE-RETURN TO MY HOMEPAGE AND CLICK ON MOROCCO BLOG PART II
|
|
; "35226/p479093101_24835.jpg")
; "35480/p391392011_25295.jpg")
; "35480/p431062815_25296.jpg")
; "35226/p1187083341_25124.jpg")
; "35480/p212584376_25297.jpg")
; "35226/p89357208_25126.jpg")
; "35480/p111999789_25299.jpg")
; "35480/p257194798_25308.jpg")
; "35226/p40189828_25125.jpg")
; "35480/p395336278_25309.jpg")
; "35480/p713666054_25310.jpg")
; "35226/p822531554_25132.jpg")
; "35480/p738069913_25311.jpg")
; "35226/p949634612_25133.jpg")
; "35226/p184309194_25135.jpg")
; "35480/p461907590_25359.jpg")
; "35480/p75117928_25360.jpg")
; "35226/p614061755_25137.jpg")
; "35480/p309636060_25361.jpg")
; "35226/p440095318_25138.jpg")
; "35480/p83403894_25362.jpg")
; "35226/p1032095913_25139.jpg")
; "35226/p595612613_25140.jpg")
; "35480/p32823187_25364.jpg")
; "35226/p206047736_25141.jpg")
; "35480/p1026073918_25367.jpg")
; "35226/p1936583_25142.jpg")
; "35480/p539819830_25368.jpg")
; "35226/p106422555_25143.jpg")
; "35480/p1168633973_25371.jpg")
; "35226/p13593076_25144.jpg")
; "35480/p745910431_25372.jpg")
; "35226/p31659801_25145.jpg")
; "35480/p151548347_25373.jpg")
; "35480/p1107147979_25374.jpg")
; "35226/p464714762_25147.jpg")
; "35480/p236818985_25375.jpg")
; "35226/p84682069_25148.jpg")
; "35226/p79176842_25149.jpg")
; "35480/p480821383_25394.jpg")
; "35226/p307248246_25150.jpg")
; "35480/p822001366_25522.jpg")
; "35226/p753673068_25154.jpg")
; "35480/p117153167_25523.jpg")
; "35480/p1220349038_25524.jpg")
; "35226/p201369649_25156.jpg")
; "35480/p1676836404_25525.jpg")
; "35480/p794465360_25526.jpg")
; "35226/p131007457_25158.jpg")
; "35480/p653133936_25527.jpg")
; "35480/p80942565_25528.jpg")
; "35480/p117676895_25529.jpg")
; "35226/p81332442_25161.jpg")
; "35480/p860847818_25530.jpg")
; "35480/p869646378_25531.jpg")
; "35480/p112079011_25532.jpg")
; "35226/p1289911259_25164.jpg")
; "35480/p540599114_25533.jpg")
; "35226/p64126357_25166.jpg")
; "35226/p962580653_25168.jpg")
; "35226/p1019572413_25176.jpg")
; "35226/p6228106_25177.jpg")
; "35226/p541619358_25178.jpg")
; "35226/p180475298_25184.jpg")
; "35226/p395171232_25188.jpg")
; "35226/p1109162011_25222.jpg")
; "35226/p903415779_25220.jpg")
; "35226/p365914738_25219.jpg")
; "35226/p1544918597_25222.jpg")
; "35226/p483139248_25224.jpg")
; "35226/p536609012_25225.jpg")
; "35226/p123517830_25226.jpg")
; "35226/p106532021_25227.jpg")
; "35226/p287732426_25228.jpg")
; "35226/p1712238642_25276.jpg")
; "35226/p528427334_25277.jpg")
; "35226/p377151132_25281.jpg")
; "35226/p76203615_25282.jpg")
; "35226/p40809508_25283.jpg")