Why Moroccans are Afraid to be Seen with Me

So last week, my friend Elena wanted to locate and inquire about volunteering at a women’s health and family planning association in Fes in case she decided to stay instead of moving to Rabat this week as originally planned. I offered to go with and help her look for it. The directions we had were not very clear so, of course, we couldn’t locate our destination (or even the street it was on). We kept wandering and asking random shop-owners or passersby until we found some young women who took it upon themselves to help us find this association. They were so kind and helpful, even though there was a lot of confusion because they didn’t speak much French. It turned out to be a great opportunity for Elena and I (both introduced to Moroccan Arabic upon arrival in Fes) to exercise our Darija! It’s pretty incredible how much the four of us were able to communicate with each other.

The funny part of this quest, was that as the four of us were walking around, elbows linked and in pairs, our escorts were actually afraid that police would see them walking with me and question them. Whereas Elena looks Moroccan (apparently Indian + Italian + Czechoslovakian = Moroccan), I do not. The Moroccan girls were afraid the police would think they were “faux guides” trying to take advantage of vacationers! We were giggling and laughing about it, but I could tell they were actually nervous. Khadija – linked arm in arm with Elena – said to Maria (linked arm in arm with me) in Darija/French,

“Haa, I’m safe because she looks Moroccan – but yours is 100% American!”

I found this situation kind of humorous, but at the same time incredibly inopportune. ALIF had also told us that our host families needed to have papers with them if they were to be in public with us or traveling with us to prove that they are legit. It’s great that the police are cracking down on faux guides who take advantage of tourists but at the same time that shouldn’t prevent Moroccans from making foreign friends.

Anyway, after 2 phone calls, 4 inquiries, one visit to a different association, and much wandering, we FOUND IT! The girls went into the organization with us, waited while Elena spoke with the woman there, and stayed with us until we successfully got a taxi home. We exchanged phone numbers and email addresses and decided to meet up 2 days later to have a little French/Darija language exchange.

Elena and I in our favorite Salon de Thé

When the four of us met up two days later, we did, in fact, have more great language and culture exchange. Our various topics of conversation included: Americans and why some are afraid of (don’t understand) Muslims, Barack Obama, boys, and religion. It was really interesting and they explained to us how not everyone would have helped us but they felt it was their duty as Allah was watching.

I think people would be surprised to hear how accepting people are of other religions here. From what I have experienced so far, many Muslims agree that Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are all tied to the same single God – but only have different prophets conveying this God’s message. They respect people of these faiths and believe they are all going to heaven (or to be with God) after death. It is if you don’t have a religion (or have one that is not one of these three) that they become concerned for you. But of course regardless of the specifications of one’s non-Muslim status, a Moroccan would say that they may yet become Muslim, Insha’Allah, (God-willing).