Category: all things moroccan

Here’s a very interesting development in the religio-political landscape in Morocco: an official council will be tasked with issuing fatwa proposals in the kingdom. The council will be composed of religious scholars, men and women, and the proposals will be put to the king (who also acts as the ‘commander of the faithful’.) Ordinarily, any cleric can issue his own fatwa, and it’s quite possible that competing and contradictory fatwas can circulate at any given time. With the creation of this new body, fatwas will be based on a collective opinion and will have more of a government oversight. It sounds like an effort to curtail the influence of the Islamists, though the Party for Justice and Development claims they’re quite happy with the development and commend it. Yeah, right.

The first Amazigh-language comic book is to be launched in Morocco in September, the Morocco Times reports. It tells the story of Queen Dihya, better known as the Kahina, who led her people against the Arab invaders in the 7th century. Cool.

Please take a moment to visit FreeThemNow.org, a new website that seeks to bring world attention to the plight of more than 408 Moroccan POWs–the world’s longest-held prisoners of war. Captured in the early days of the conflict in Western Sahara between Morocco and the Polisario Front, these people have been held for nearly 30 years. Senator McCain, a former POW, has recently joined the Free Them Now group.

The Casablanca bombings, which took the lives of 45 people, most of them Moroccans, happened two years ago today. There’s some coverage in the press, most of it filed from Sidi Moumen, the slum a few miles north of the city, where the suicide bombers lived prior to the attacks. In the L.A. Times Scheherazade Faramarzi speaks to the families of the two bombers who fled the scene without detonating their bombs, and who are now on death row. In the Boston Globe Charles Radin talks to the victims’ families and to organizers of several gatherings in commemoration of the events. In US News and World Report Thomas Omestad offers a more comprehensive view of how the country has changed since May 16, 2003, including the tensions between reformers and islamists, legal advances and setbacks, and what it means for the future. And in the Morocco Times, Karima Rhanem talks about the commemorative events planned this year in Casablanca. For those who can read French, I highly recommend the Moroccan weekly magazine Tel Quel, which has excellent investigative pieces and penetrating commentary by Moroccans about Morocco.

Hassan Benjelloun’s latest movie, Derb Moulay Chrif (La Chambre Noire/The Black Room), has won second place in Africa’s biggest film competition, Fespaco 2005, which was held this year in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The film is based on Jaouad Mdidech’s autobiographical book about the quasi-systematic torture of leftist students and activists in 1970s Morocco. (Top prize was taken by Drum, directed by Zola Maseko and starring Taye Diggs.) An interview with Derb Moulay Chrif‘s Hanane Ibrahim appears here. Despite direct criticism of the late king’s regime, the movie received some state funds, and was shown in theatres across the country.

I was saddened by this news report about the death of 37 people off the coast of Morocco. The would-be migrants had used the city of Al-Hoceima as a departure point, instead of leaving from Tangier, which is approximately 10 miles away from Spain. They wanted to avoid the radar systems recently put in place by the EU, but their route was much further away, and many of them drowned. The details in the report were eerily similar to some I had imagined for my book. One passenger, for instance, had a university degree in mathematics, and had tried everything he could to find a job. He paid the exorbitant sum of $6,000 in order to try his luck on a boat, hoping to find a job in Europe. One of my characters, Murad, has a similar background, and the same notion that immigration will help him solve his problems. His belief is of course, based on the stories he hears from those who’ve made it:

Amidst such problems some emigrants return on holidays to show off, Nadif said. “They drive around in fancy cars with Italian number plates. They make Europe sound like an El Dorado.”

“I know Europe is not a paradise,” says Farid, a 25-year-old with a degree in French literature. “But I do know a European can find a job with one of my degrees.”

But stories like this one, of people drowning or ships sinking, slip by without registering on anyone’s mind for too long. It’s like the lottery. No one thinks of the losers. It’s much too comforting to think of the winner.