For a millennia-old civilisation,
Morocco looks young. There’s a
reason for this, beyond rejuvenating
hammams: half the population is
under 25, almost a third is under 15,
and less than 5% is over 65.Best-selling Moroccan author and
academic Fatima Mernissi exposes
telling differences and uncanny
similarities in the ideals of women in
Europe and the Middle East in
Scheherazade Goes West: Different
Cultures, Different Harems .questions to come up in the course of conversation: where is
your family? Are you married, and do you have children? How
are they doing? This might seem a little nosey, and a
roundabout way of finding out who you are and what interests
you. But to Moroccans, questions about where you work or
what you do in your spare time are odd ice-breakers, since
what you do for a living or a hobby says less about you than
what you do for your family.
Education
Next to family, education is the most important indicator of social status in Morocco. Driss and
Amina read and write, like 52.3% of Morocco’s population. But even with her college degree,
Amina may find her employment options limited: 40% of Moroccan humanities graduates were
unemployed in 2008.
Rashid’s ability to read makes him an exception in rural Morocco – and if he does enrol in
middle school, he will be among just 12% of rural boys to have that opportunity. Schooling to
age 14 is now an official mandate, and local initiatives have dramatically improved opportunities
for education in the Moroccan countryside. But for vulnerable rural families like Rashid’s, just
getting the children fed can be difficult, let alone getting them to school. According to the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), child malnourishment is on the rise in Morocco,
doubling from 4% in the mid-1990s to 8% in 2006. Innovative school programs like Rashid’s
that provide food as well as literacy are much needed to build a healthier, brighter future for
Morocco.
Shifting Gender Roles
A decade or two ago, you might not have met Fatima or Amina.
Most of the people you’d see out and about, going to school,
socialising and conducting business in Morocco would have
been men. Women were occupied with less high-profile work,
such as animal husbandry, farming, childcare, fetching water
and firewood.
As of 2004, Morocco’s Mudawanna legal code guarantees
women crucial rights to custody, divorce, property ownership
and child support, among other protections. Positive social
pressure has greatly reduced the once-common practice of hiring girls under 14 years of age
as domestic workers, and initiatives to eliminate female illiteracy are giving girls a better start in
life. Women now represent nearly a third of Morocco’s formal workforce, forming their own
industrial unions, agricultural cooperatives and artisans’ collectives.
DRESSING TO IMPRESS IN MOROCCO
Since they’ve had contact with Europeans for the last couple of millennia and satellite TV for a decade, Moroccans are not
likely to be shocked by Western attire. In fact, you’ll notice logo T-shirts and trainers widely worn by young urbanites – if
copyright were enforced here, under-25 populations of major Moroccan cities would be half naked.
You are not expected to cover your head in Morocco – though it can be handy protection against desert sandstorms. As