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Almanac:
Calendar information about cultural and community events in Morocco.
Events in Rabat, Casablanca, Fez, Tangier and throughout Morocco of possible
interest to readers are included. Updated weekly each Thursday.
Compiled as a community service by Mark
Parkison of AMIDEAST. Contact Mark to be included on the mailing list.
Events
Calendar for Friends of Morocco in the USA
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12/27
Week in Review: News clips from Morocco
12/20
Week in Review: News clips from Morocco
12/13
Week in Review: News clips from Morocco
12/06
Week in Review: News clips from Morocco
11/29
Week in Review: News clips from Morocco
Compiled weekly by Mhamed El Kadi
in Morocco and posted each Saturday on this site
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Theatre
of war: Andrew Hussey meets the boy boxers of Marrakesh and finds that street
fighting in the city's main square is not just popular - it might also be Morocco's
best way to stop the spreading influence of al-Qaeda.
Andrew Hussey Wednesday November 26 2003 The Guardian
It doesn't take long for the fight to catch fire. Within seconds of the opening
exchange of insults, the younger lad, Ijaz, who is tall, rangy and has a dangerous
reach, catches the jaw of the older youth with a penetrating jab. His opponent,
a year or two older but still barely a teenager, winces and, fighting back tears
of humiliation, launches himself in a flurry of wheeling punches. A charge crackles
through the crowd of men and boys who are gathered tightly around the makeshift
ring in the late afternoon sun (there are women here but their presence is,
for now, discreet). ...MORE
Historic
wedding dress a symbol of Jewish role in Spain-Morocco ties
By: Jerome Socolovsky MADRID, Dec. 2 (JTA) — Since the wave of Jewish immigration
out of Morocco began half a century ago, Anita Ben Sadon has done everything
she could in Spain to preserve her culture in her adopted homeland. The centerpiece
of her efforts has been a wedding dress of crimson velvet, with a silk sash
and golden embroidery. She calls it the “Traje de Berberisca,” or the Berber
wedding dress, because it was influenced by the customs of Morocco’s Berbers.
“My Aunt Ester used to dress all the brides in Tangier,” Ben Sadon said. “But
when she got old, she wanted the tradition to continue, so she gave it to me,
and I’ve been dressing all the brides here for the last 40 years. With the same
dress.” The wedding dress, one of only two of a kind remaining in Spain, is
the centerpiece of a landmark exhibit recently on the life of Sephardi Jews
in northern Morocco being held at the Museo de la Cuidad, the municipal museum
of Madrid. ...MORE
MOROCCO
PUSHES WOMEN'S RIGHTS
By Delphine Soulas THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The thorough reform of Moroccan law bearing on the status of women announced last month by King Mohammed VI, which would recognize them as adults, is expected to put that country's women on a par with Tunisia's. This would leave only Algeria among North African former colonies of France where the traditional family code continues to significantly limit women's civil rights. "How can society achieve progress while women, who represent half the nation, see their rights violated and suffer as a result of injustice, violence and marginalization?" asked the king in his address to the opening session of Morocco's parliament last month. Since the promulgation of a series of family laws in 1957 and 1958, the status of Moroccan women in civil law has been governed by the Code of Personal Status, known as the Mudawwana and based on the Malikite school of Islamic law. Under the code, women are treated as legal minors, have no say in their marriage contracts, have very limited access to divorce and are required to obey their husbands in all matters. "The personal status code, part of Morocco's civil law, establishes a system of inequality based on sex and relegates women to a subordinate status in society," said Human Rights Watch in urging the Moroccan government to change its legal code. "Women face government-sponsored discrimination that renders them unequal before the law ... and restricts women's participation in public life," the group said. MORE
Marrakech
Berbers sing to survive
Berber tribes in the Moroccan city of Marrakech are using musical talents once
developed as a means of identity to get together money to live.
The bands, which include boys as young as six, perform in Marrakech's most popular
areas in the hope of attracting cash. In particular they are present in the
Jamaa El Fna Square, which has a long-standing reputation as a carnival centre
in an increasingly conservative country. "They do it for survival,"
Moroccan travel writer Yusuf Elalamy told BBC World Service's Masterpiece programme.
"It's performance, it's open-air, it's spontaneous, but they expect you
to give something in return....
A
Moroccan feast! Gulf Daily News
It was in Morocco that I had my first exposure to Arab hospitality. I was a
19-year old student wandering around Europe by train and had ventured across
to North Africa. It was the month of August, it was scorching hot, and it was
Ramadan. I have to admit that in those days I knew very little about Islam,
and on my first day in Rabat, the capital, I was so fascinated to see people
scurrying about as sunset approached, that I sat down on a step to watch the
crowds rushing home. Suddenly, I was approached by a young Moroccan, who stopped
in front of me, said something in Arabic which I didn't understand, and then
grabbed my hand. ...
Morocco:
A camel's-eye view
05 November 2003 By Denis Horgan LA Times-Washington Post
When a camel's left front leg goes out, its right rear hip bounds sideways while its front left shoulder rises skyward and its rear end sags and its right rear knee bends the opposite way entirely, causing a general swaying, surging, lunging and tossing. This process is reversed when the camel uses another hoof, the camel being blessed or cursed with four legs, all moving languorously but no two bending in the same direction at the same time.
Seasick atop the ship of the desert, you will be tossed about like a rag doll or a marionette in a windstorm. You will ache everywhere. The camel, meanwhile, ambles along genially, its mind in the clouds, chewing away like an American teenager with gum and plotting new ways to make you uncomfortable – like scraping you against a wall or the only tree within 300 kilometres.
Yet anyone who skips a camel trip in Morocco is cheating themselves of an enormous treat. You might as well skip the labyrinthine souqs (markets) of ancient Fez or skip the astonishing greenery of the oases at Zis, startling explosions of colour amid the terrific bleakness of sand and rock. You might as well, skip, too, Fez's tanneries, which give a preview of hell, or the bizarre bazaars of Marrakech's Djemaa el Fna or the Valley of 1000 Kasbahs. ... more
Homegrown
change in Morocco
Frederick Vreeland IHT Thursday, October 30, 2003
A monarch's vision MARRAKECH, Morocco While the Defense Department is dreaming of how its Iraq policies will transform Arab states into democracies, one Arab country is quietly working a democratic revolution without any apparent outside influence. King Muhammad VI of Morocco opened this autumn's session of Parliament by laying before the legislators a sweeping reform that effectively grants women equality with men. Since the early 1990's, civil rights groups have clamored for reform of the 1957 decrees that institutionalize the second-rate status of Moroccan women, but no one had predicted that Morocco's centuries-old discrimination against women could be reversed in one fell swoop.
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Try
some exotic styles from Morocco
Posted on Sat, Nov. 01, 2003
Morocco, the northwest African country set between desert and sea and bordered by the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, is a true melting pot of civilizations, populated by diverse ethnic and religious groups with 11 official languages. The very word - Morocco - conjures exoticism. Being at the coastal crossroads of Europe and Africa, it represents many cultures, traditions and styles, and has long provided inspiration for artists and designers captivated by its multitude of flavors.
I've never been to Morocco, but that hasn't hampered my enthusiasm and appreciation for the artifacts, colors and designs from that country. In the U.S., Moroccan influences can be seen in many design styles - in looks both ancient and modern. What makes Moroccan style so exotic and distinctive is its singular use of color, pattern, and texture, and how these ingredients are blended to produce their incredible architecture and furnishings.
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Low
prices lure directors to Morocco
ANGELA DOLAND Associated Press MARRAKECH, Morocco
Take a warrior king or a crusading knight. Throw in lots of sandy desert, some grisly battle scenes and an army of extras. The sword-and-sandals flick is getting a Hollywood revival, thanks to "Gladiator." There's only one problem: Many upcoming movies are set in the Middle East, where "shooting a movie" could take on a whole different meaning right now.
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In
Morocco, medieval meets modern
By G.G. LaBelle The Associated Press FEZ, Morocco
It's impossible not to get jostled in the narrow alleys in the old city of Fez. Coming toward you, or trying to squeeze past, are formidable Moroccan ladies in black, grizzled men pulling hand carts and boys tugging donkeys.
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By MATTHEW GOODMAN Like an archaeologist painstakingly mapping the contours of a ruined city, Alegria Bendelac spent 10 years of her life creating a dictionary for a language that is no longer spoken. Ms. Bendelac, a petite, energetic woman who looks much younger than her years, was born and raised in Tangier, Morocco. Her family was among the last few hundred Jews in a city in which some 10,000 once resided. As André Aciman wrote about his own family living in Egypt, they were "at the very tail end of those whom history shrugs aside when it changes its mind.".................
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Marrakech
Expressions THE HOUR
By LEONARD FEIN
Yes, I know there are important things, perhaps even cataclysmic things, happening in the world. But here in Marrakech their urgency somehow recedes. A well-informed guide delights in a receptive client; ours is a fountain from which everything pours out: political history and art history, sociology and archeology, economics and agriculture, irrigation systems and theology. I drown in data on the dynasties, the wars, the conquests, the defeats, in seemingly endless and mindless succession, am wearied by it all, when suddenly it occurs to me that 500 and a 1,000 years from now, our times will seem no less mad, no less bloody, no less given to folly than the times of the Berbers, the Almoravids, the Almohads, the Wattasids and the rest. One weeps for the endlessness of it all, wonders whether peace is inherently veiled, slaughter our more common condition.............
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Reimagining
a World of Bittersweet Splendor Poignant Morocco Exhibit Portrays a Lost Realm
of Intermingled Cultures
By MARC MICHAEL EPSTEIN
Rabat, Fez, Mogador, Tangier - the very names of these cities evoke the play of light and shadow on white stucco in narrow alleyways, ancient wooden doors opening on exquisitely tiled courtyards. Merely allude to Morocco and the imagination conjures up a host of associations - romantic and orientalist, literary and musical, sensory and culinary. If one could only bottle the rich essence of the setting and its cultures! Many have, in fact, tried and failed, but The Jewish Museum's exhibition "Morocco: Jews and Art in a Muslim Land," on view through February 11, 2001, succeeds brilliantly, allowing more than 180 spectacular objects their own space to breathe. Each artifact, be it sumptuous or humble, stands on its own as an art object, an ethnographic document or a relic of a culture, yet all come together to form a coherent picture of a larger society.
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Go
with the grain: Vegetarian discovers beauty of couscous in exotic Morocco
By Lee Zucker October 23, 2003 Vegetarian Kitchen The Register-Guard, Eugene,
Oregon
I have eaten couscous in North African homes and restaurants on four continents during the past 30 years - usually to the point of gluttony. I've loved it in almost all its infinite variety: No two cooks season the crowning stew with the same hand - there's always a little more of this, a little less of that. A succulent adventure. The rare occasions when couscous has been underwhelming or even truly awful have been on our continent, where it's common to play fast and loose with tradition to save time and effort, even on great classics.
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A
King's Appeal By Jim Hoagland Washington Post Thursday, October 16,
2003; Page A25
Western democracies won the Cold War by shaking open closed societies and exposing their failures and crimes to citizens who then refused to go on living that way. The great political challenge of today is to induce similar change in Arab nations and other Islamic countries that do not respect the rights and dignity of their own citizens.
Think of it as collateral repair: The coming wave of epochal change must also be driven by internal forces, with restrained but committed support from abroad. The ultimate goal is reform within Islam conceived and carried out by Muslim leaders, scholars and civic groups, substantively welcomed by the West.
And that reform must begin with the role and rights of women in the Islamic world. A question posed last week in as important a speech as I have read recently makes that unblinkingly clear: "How can society achieve progress while women, who represent half the nation, see their rights violated and suffer as a result of injustice, violence and marginalization, notwithstanding the dignity and justice granted them by our glorious religion?"
The irrefutable logic about the high cost of institutionalized gender discrimination was voiced by Morocco's King Mohammed VI last Friday at the opening of Parliament in Rabat. He then outlined far-reaching changes in family and divorce laws for the kingdom that would effectively lessen the intrusive reach of religious authorities into gender issues. ..... MORE
jimhoagland@washpost.com © 2003 The Washington Post Company
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Morocco
torn between security and democracy
By Issandr AlAmrani Middle East Times
Four months after the May 16 Casablanca bombings that took more than 40 lives – the first Islamist terror attacks in the country - Moroccans find themselves at a critical juncture on the road to democratization. On the one hand, many are eager to continue the democratization process started toward the end of the reign of King Hassan II, which was given a boost by King Muhammad VI when he ascended the throne. Opposition newspapers and new political parties flourished. But the transition period was short-lived. Soon after the September 11 attacks on America, security forces started to regain their influence as the kingdom's traditional elite – the makhzen - began to worry that Al Qaeda's ideas might spread to Morocco. By the time the May 16 attacks took place, democratization was put on hold.
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Movies
in Morocco, The 3rd Marrakech International Film Festival by Howard Feinstein
"I'm a real bitch when it comes to my rights," says brash singer/belly dancer/hooker Sahar in the Egyptian film "Lace." Sahar is played by the great icon of Arab cinema, Yousra. This five-year-old film, which belongs to the catfight genre, was part of a homage to the legendary thesp at the third edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival (October 3-8)
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Hidden Agendas
in the Sand
Ian Williams and Stephen Zunes, September 24, 2003 Guerrilla News Network
After much wrangling from the French, the UN Security Council unanimously passed resolution 1495 right on the July 31st deadline for the rollover of the MINURSO peacekeeping operation in Western Sahara. In the best diplomatic tradition, the resolution affirmed the commitment to provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, even while it seriously compromised on it by supporting a peace plan that would allow the Moroccan settlers in the territory to vote on independence in five years. As with Israeli settlers on the West Bank, these Moroccan colonists are there in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits countries from transfering their civilian population onto territories seized by military force. The Security Council had fought off a similar plan last year, but this time former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special representative, adjusted the plan to provide for a genuine Sahrawi autonomy in the five years before the proposed referendum. This was an ominous sign for the increasingly autocratic rule of King Mohammed in Morocco itself, not to mention leading to uncertainty about the result of the referendum: one fixed principle of Rabat's policy has been never to allow a vote that its principals cannot control.
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A
Couscous of Cultures, Simmered for Centuries in Morocco
September 22, 2003 By ANNE MIDGETTE New York Times
It is a sign of Western cultural bias that the term "classical music" is commonly understood to apply to only the music of North America and Europe, although "world music" (an equally catchall term) includes many traditions that are even older. The Orchestra of Fès, which played at Zankel Hall on Saturday night, was founded in Morocco in 1946, but the Arab-Andalusian music it plays goes back to the ninth century. For Western audiences the word orchestra conjures up visions of vast ensembles, but here it was six male instrumentalists joined by a singer, Françoise Atlan. Since the Middle Ages the instrumentation of ensembles devoted to this repertory - notable for its blend of Spanish, Muslim and Jewish influences - has changed considerably. The original diminutive lute morphed into the six-stringed oud of Egypt; the traditional tar, a small tambourine that sets and accents the tempo, was joined by a goblet-shaped drum called a darbuka; and in the 19th-century Western violins and violas were added, here held upright on the players' knees and bowed like violas da gamba. But there was nothing the least bit antiquated about the performance: this group could teach classical music a lot about keeping traditions alive. The Andalusian repertory was codified in the 18th century into 11 lengthy cycles called nubat; because the shortest of these extends over five CD's when performed in its entirety, the usual practice is to play individual movements from a cycle, and a more recent trend is, as this orchestra did, to combine parts of several nubat in new sets, allowing the ensemble to put its stamp on the music. Texts range from Spanish-Jewish folk songs to songs about the prophet Muhammad. The components of each set are separated by vocal or instrumental solos: musings on the oud, or cascades of minor-key runs descending on the violin over a sustained drone from the viola; or the silvery singing of Ms. Atlan, delicate as filigree, drawing the strings behind her in echo. At other times the instruments joined in rousing ensembles, and Ms. Atlan's slender voice was swallowed up by the rougher sandpaper burr of the voices of the men in chorus, dominated by a cracking countertenor. The virtuosity was as undeniable as the appeal. At the end of this nearly two-hour concert the ensemble was joined for its encore by the rhythmic clapping of the audience in raucous accompaniment.
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Washington
Times has featured a special
report on Morocco on its summer issue. The articles cover the economy,
US-Morocco relations, culture, FTA with US, interviews, and may other issues
of interest:
Politics
The United States and the Kingdom of Morocco Negotiate Free Trade Agreement
as Old Friends with New Priorities
America’s FTA Initiative: Stealth Weapon in the War on Terror
Interview with Former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco, Edward Gabriel
Historical Background on United States - Morocco Relations
Casablanca Terror Attacks a Moment of Truth for the Kingdom
His Majesty King Mohammed VI's Address to the Nation on the Casablanca Bombings
A Discussion with Andre Azoulay, Chief Advisor to HM King Mohammed VI
Morocco’s Minister of Habous and Islamic Affairs Comments on Kingdom’s
Religious Legacy
Morocco Continues its Democratic Evolution
U.S. Ambassador highlights Kingdom’s progressive history
Business
ONAREP is the Repository of Morocco’s Dreams
Domaines Agricole Benzit a Model of U.S.-Moroccan Cooperation
BMCE Bank Group Committed to Morocco’s Economic Development
The American Chamber of Commerce in Morocco and its Member Companies are Confident
in Potential of U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement
CRI takes an innovative approach to tackling development issues
Minister of Foreign Trade confident in potential of FTA
Hilton Rabat Makes Transition to a New General Manager and to the New Morocco
Crowne Plaza Casablanca Makes its Mark Through Customer Service
Culture/Tourism
United States - Morocco relations: 227 years of friendship
Be Warned: A First-Time Visit to Morocco will Likely Lead to Many More
Rural Tourism: “Life-seeing” Travel in Morocco
Latifa sets sights on Olympic Gold
So Many Cabs, So Many Colors
Donkeys Rule the Road in Fez
Play it again, Sam . . . Play it again in Casablanca
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Under
the Sheltering Sky Writer Paul Bowles helped establish Tangier as a world center
of cool and mysticism. Nearly 50 years later, how much of that spirit remains?
Washington Post By Bill Donahue Sunday, September 21, 2003; Page W10
The coolest people in the world do not wear their baseball caps backwards or pierce their navels with diamond studs. They are old and their cool is subtle, carrying hints of wisdom and poise. Johnny Cash, Marlon Brando, Georgia O'Keeffe: We behold their weathered sangfroid and we are ineluctably intrigued. As I was, years ago, watching the 1990 film "The Sheltering Sky." Based on a 1949 novel of the same name by the American expat Paul Bowles (1910-1999), the movie follows three aimless Americans who land in Bowles's adopted home, Tangier, Morocco, and wander south, only to be destroyed by primal Third World realities: thieves, mystical religion and illness. Bowles makes a cameo appearance as narrator, and, in the end, we see him watch one of the stars drift into an ancient Tangier cafe. He just stands there, motionless, an old man with white hair and rheumy gray eyes. All he says to the woman before him is, "Are you lost?" And yet somehow he embodies existential grace, and a link to a bygone era.
Post Magazine: The Allure of Tangier Bill Donahue Special to The Washington Post Monday, September 22, 2003; 1:00 PM Author Paul Bowles helped to establish Tangier as a world center of cool and mysticism. Nearly 50 years later, how much of that spirit remains in the Moroccan city? Bill Donahue, who explored that question yesterday in his article "Under the Sheltering Sky" in The Washington Post Magazine's Fall Travel Issue, was online Monday, Sept. 22 at 1 p.m. ET to field questions and comments about the article, Tangier and Bowles. Donahue is a contributing editor for Outside magazine. The transcript follows.
Road
to Morocco Belltown's new couscouserie offers authentic culinary romance.
September 10 - 16, 2003 RESTAURANT REVIEW by Hasan Jafri on Seattle Weekly
WHEN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE finally fell apart in the 1920s, three European powers agreed to carve up the Maghreb (Muslim North Africa). Britain got Egypt, Italy took Libya, and Morocco went to France. The high-level landgrab left its cultural mark, as Arabs will be the first to tell you. Respectable Egyptians suffer from the stigma of being stuffy and unexciting, the big bores of the Middle East, while the lower-class Egyptian, like your average English yob, is a soccer hooligan. And Egyptian food, while we're on the subject, is nothing to write your mummy about. So there. Libyans, like Italians, became enamored with the cult of the charismatic and deranged dictator. Mussolini is long gone, but Libya is still stuck with Col. Muammar Qaddafi. But Morocco! Morocco got lucky and inherited the French flair for food . So while the rest of the Maghreb is busy coming to terms with its colonial past, Moroccans have conquered the world with a secret weapon: couscous. If you, gentle Seattleite, haven't been won over yet by this classic Berber banquet dish, it's likely because until recently there was no real Moroccan restaurant or couscouserie hereabouts. But Marrakesh has arrived in Belltown. So line up to be won over............................