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| Entrance gate of the Fez Medina |
I came here promising myself to not have any international student friends because of the lack of the opportunity to have a host family. Realizing that Ifrane is Ifrane, and that it is a town not representative of the rest of Morocco, I had to travel on weekends. Yeah traveling is amazing, it's fun and wonderful to be able to see all these things. But that's just it, it's just seeing, not experiencing. And that is what I mean by when I say I've been so much happier in my last month here because I've been on my own, and have been experiencing more things. No matter if my friend group changed, or if my routine changed. It was all the same. The only difference was that I began to do more on my own.
It's the difference between just observing that the Moroccan tea is important, versus learning HOW to pour it, and HOW it's made. The difference between when I'm with other foreigners, Moroccans will make more of a conscious effort to speak English to us. But if it is just me, much more French and Darija goes flying around and across the room. I am by no means capable of speaking French or Darija fluently, but I've learned more words and been able to comprehend more in this past month than my entire semester here. You know why? Because I isolated myself. I took myself out of the problem that I saw myself in where I found myself stuck, and I continued my life in morocco as independently as possible that I, as a female and a foreigner, could.
That's another thing I've really learned to appreciate. My rights as a woman in the United States. Being here in Morocco I've really learned to appreciate my rights and what society says is "right versus wrong" in the States. There is so much pressure and judgement placed on women. It seems to be a two faced society struggling to meet in the middle between tradition and western globalization. Morocco is a religious country, meaning it's laws are based on the Quran. But at the same time, it's a country that is trying to move forward and become Westernized.
I really don't understand how they plan or expected this to work. Many parts of tradition put women on a pedestol but at the same time, the wealthy class here is educating their women and directing and training them to go into the business world, yet there is no business work opportunities for women here. Essentially they are preparing them to leave the country and go work in the Western countries. But still, as these women are born, raised, and grow up here, they are taught the laws and traditions of the Quran, but at the same time told to work (which is a male thing). In their education systems they are being put in a Western mindset, or at least that is what the university tries to do. But it's just like at my school, an "American" school. Students come here, and for many of them it's their first time on their own, so they go crazy. I mean, colleges in the United States are the same, but here it's to another level. I say this because children grow up being traditional, and the moment they come to live away from their parents, they can take off their veil and dress to the other extreme. I swear, in the beginning of the semester when it was still summer, I've never seen some women dress as revealing as I did here on my campus in Ifrane. More than even my own liberal arts college in the States. That really shocked me. And just like any other college students going to live away for their first time, students start drinking and smoking etc. The only difference is, that here it is illegal to smoke and drink. If you are a good Muslim, which everyone technically should be and Morocco's laws are religious laws, you should not be doing these things. However these things are accessible because Morocco does have tourists and they can't stop foreigners from getting these things if they want. But if a Moroccan gets caught with large portions of alcohol, he or she could get arrested. I've had to go with my Moroccan friends before to buy alcohol and carry it all myself, so that they would not get arrested. Ridiculous. It's a two faced society.
Men can sleep around, but noo the moment a woman does, society judges her and she denies that it happened, because "if her father found out he would kill her. If he found out she had a boyfriend he'd kill her". And often times women don't want to give in unless there is some form of security. So what is there? So many men end up agreeing to be in relationships and some even throwing out the words "I'll marry you one day" just so he can get in her pants. And women take these things seriously and sometimes believe it. Then they give it up, and they are immediately "A bad Muslim" and society judges them. So they deny it. A lot of things here in society contradict each other, where tradition meets Western globalization. It's a place that seems to be struggling with its own identity.
Does globalization mean losing a country's culture? This is an issue that I've never thought about because I've primarily traveled to Europe and parts of Asia, and within Canada and the States, where everything is Westernized. They are the definition of Western. And I realized that these places don't deal with the same issues that Morocco does, because firstly their laws are not religious, but mostly because being modern and western is part of their culture. Take the States for example, it is a new nation built from scratch. What culture did it even have to lose from the beginning? What tradition? I've never thought about this, but being here has really made me realize the effects of globalization.
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| Sunrise in the Pre-Sahara |
When you study abroad you have a university as a home base. You have the opportunity to make friends that are local people, and you have the opportunity to put yourself in the middle of it, immerse yourself, and fully experience the culture of Morocco. Take advantage of that. Traveling every weekend is not experiencing anything, it's just being a tourist. Yes being a tourist can be fun and you do see a lot, but doesn't mean you learn anything, or comprehend it. It's like the tea. You can observe that it is important as people will serve it to you everywhere, but you don't understand it. Understanding it comes from immersing yourself and you would learn how it is made and how in Moroccan culture people were raised and taught how to pour it in a specific way to form the bubbles, You would even learn to pour it yourself.
This semester, despite my first rough two months, and despite the fact that I hate being a woman and a foreigner here (because that limits me and made me become dependent on so many people that I knew I could not depend on), I still learned a lot. Being dependent on Moroccans just because they are Moroccans and can speak the language or because some are men (good for safety), I learned to be flexible, because you should never rely on other people.But here in Morocco you really are a bit helpless if you are both a woman and a foreigner. You're stuck. Also people here have no sense of time and are terrible at planning things. So it was hard to depend for that reason as well. But I think the sense of time thing is just an all Mediterranean thing.
I've always generally been an independent person. I did not become more independent here. Morocco put me in the complete opposite situation and I learned to go with it. Having to rely on others especially when sometimes they were not reliable, I learned to just go with the flow more, and to not let disappointment get to me. Plans are just plans and things can change and you just go with it. Morocco has forced me to become more lax about everything because when you are forced to depend on a Moroccan because of a language barrier or just safety because I'm "weak and vulnerable" as a woman, you have absolutely no control of anything. I learned to not have any sense of control, and adjusted to it.
I already learned flexibility in Italy. I was in a new place on my own for a year in a place where hardly anyone spoke English and although being a woman in Italy doesn't really limit you, not knowing the language or culture still does. That is how surprises can just be flung at you at any moment and you just gotta go with it. I learned a lot in Italy, but I took those skills to Morocco and they developed even more so. From independence and learning how to find my own way in Italy, to complete heavy dependence in Morocco (because it's not safe for a woman to travel on her own, but in Italy it's ok) I learned a lot.
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| Panorama of Chefchaouen |
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