The Shamal Series: Asilah

When I was first told by my recruiter that I was nominated for an NGO development post in Morocco, I immediately thought of the great desert dunes of the Sahara, the oases, camels, and the hot sun.  I was looking forward to this change of scenery.  For most of my life, I had lived with green all around me.  

Once I found out that Morocco would be my home for the next two years, I began to do a little research.  I learned that Morocco did indeed border the Sahara, but there was so much more than just sun and sand.  It had towering snow-capped mountains and lush river valleys, fertile plains and beautiful beaches, and because of its geographic location, it had been a crossroads for many dynasties, empires, kingdoms, and merchants who brought with them their culture, religious traditions, architecture, and diets creating a vibrant region that like its zellij is a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of colors, and like its ganawa, the people move to the sound of syncopated rhythm.

In my short time here, I've been able to zig-zag throughout the northern countryside stopping by to catch a few waves on the Atlantic coast in Asilah, to chill and marvel at the blue city of Chefchaouan sitting on the jagged peaks of the Rif Mountains, to travel back in time walking through the Roman ruins of Volubilis, to take in the sights, sounds, and smells of the medieval old city of Fes, to descend to the center of the earth by way of the Grotte Friouato, to reach the source of the best tasting sparkling mineral water brewed by the thermal springs near Oulmes, and to walk lazily through the Chellah Sanctuary and the Unfinished Mosque of Rabat.  These are just a few of the sites I've been fortunate to visit.  There are many more that I have yet to see.  Inchallah (God willing), I'll take a trip to the Mediterranean coast sometime in the summer.  


For the sake of keeping these entries short and sweet, I will only entertain you with my recent trip to Asilah.  Stay posted for more destinations in the future.  So without further ado, here are some pics, comments, and suggestions on the Morocco that few think about when they think of Morocco, the bountiful, stunning, and the unforgettable shamal (north).

Kicking it back in Asilah

Last summer a group of volunteers made plans to do a little vacationing prior to the month of Ramadan.  A few suggested Al Hoceima on the Mediterranean coast, others Tangiers, and another group pushed for Asilah.  Luckily, Asilah came out as the winner.  A couple of the reasons why it won was due to its easy access and its cosmopolitan vibe.  Every year the town hosts an international contemporary art and cultural festival that brings artists from around the globe and allows them to use the walls of the old fortress medina(old city) as their canvas.  In addition to the murals that don the city, the festival is filled with music and dance.  Last year, a band of Mexican musicians brought mariachi to the streets of Asilah.  Unfortunately, when I went, the festival had just come to an end, but the murals were still up.  It was like walking through an art museum except you were outside in the open air and every painting was humongous.



Outside of the old city, Asilah has a long beach-front promenade with tall palm trees, cafes and restaurants, and decorated with flags from all over the world.  The sunset on the beach was beautiful.  I should note that if you plan to check out the sunset on the beach, be sure to get back to the lighted promenade before it gets too dark as it is prohibited to walk the beach at night.  Apparently, for safety concerns and cultural reasons, the police prefer that lovers take their loving to their hotel rooms.   


As a beach resort town, seafood is widely available at a reasonable price and because of the large influx of Spanish tourists that frequent the city, the restaurants can prepare it paella-style.  I'm a fan of the street food and sometimes I pay dearly for it, not monetarily speaking but rather through bouts of indigestion.  This time around, hamdullah(thanks be to God), I had no problems after eating about 20Dh worth of pastilla from a street cart.  It was a scrumptious taste of heaven.

The highlight of the trip was by far our short trek to a nearby beach called Paradise Beach.  It lies about 5k south of Asilah.  The grand taxi goes through some rough terrain before dropping down from the Asilah plateau to a wide expanse of sand and what looked like water-reed bungalows.  We arrived early morning when hardly anyone was there.  We parked ourselves in one of the bungalows, which provided lounge chairs, boogie boards, and that also threw in some lunch for a total of 60-70Dhs.  Once we got situated, we took our boogie boards and headed straight for the waves.  In the morning, we had to run a good 100 meters before reaching water.  By evening though, the waves were at the door of the bungalow.  The water was a bit chilly, but with the hot Moroccan sun bearing down, I barely felt cold.  The waves were phenomenal, great for boogie boarding, and good enough for a number of surfers.  At about 6PM, we reluctantly returned to Asilah and took the party back to our apartment.


I had a seafood paella in the evening.  A few of us pitched in to drink a little brew and then after some dancing and mingling, we headed out to stroll the promenade.  At the beach there was a small carnival of rides.  We hopped onto the bumper cars, and then after a few high-adrenaline rides inflicting whiplash on one another and our Moroccan friends, we exited the rink and got on a spinny ride--a decision that at first seemed like a good continuation to our night at the carnival, but would later be the decision we would all regret.  

We boarded the spinny ride contraption and anxiously awaited the start.  At first the ride began by gradually speeding up and elevating us.  As we gained speed, we felt ourselves sinking deeper into our seats as we probably pulled a little g-force.  Most of us at that moment still had smiles on our faces, some of us had our hands up, and our feet were waggling from side to side and others were simulating running in open air.  The ride continued to rise to the point where we were now at a steep diagonal.  The operator turned down the speed of the ride so that we could all enjoy the liberating feeling of free-fall.  Normally, this feeling is the most exhilarating part of the ride, but as my body dropped, my stomach, full of food and brew, felt as if it was lagging behind and rising up to my throat with every drop in what now seemed like a torturous, ill-conceived, and never-ending ride.  As we neared the end, our smiles turned to distraught faces that appeared ready to spew out everything in our upset stomachs.  Some of us held it together and others released.  I turned to my zen meditation and began breathing deeply.  The meditation saved me from unleashing my stomach's wrath all over the ride, but the calm only lasted for a brief moment because once I reached the apartment, I stopped fighting it and ultimately succumbed.

I will forever remember the Asilah promenade, the humongous murals, the squeaky clean old city, the b(p)astilla and paella, Paradise Beach, and the spinny ride.  In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I may just do it all over again with the exception of the spinny ride.


Trip Essentials:


Transpo: ONCF Train service is available to Asilah and I highly recommend it.  CTM buses also pass through on their way to Tangiers.  Non-CTM buses like Njeme Chamal also run regular routes from Marrakech, Fes, Casablanca and Rabat.  


Hotel: There are a number of cheap hotels.  We stayed at Mounia Apartments, which were fully decked out with kitchenettes, western toilets, showers, and balconies facing the promenade.  Everything worked well.  I can't recall exactly how much it was per person.  Let's just say it was on the expensive end for PC standards, but well worth it.


To learn more about Asilah, visit: http://www.morocco.com/attractions/asilah/
       

Camp GLOW 2010 - Girls Leading Our World - Join Us in Saving the World!!!

Saving the world is actually easier than it seems.  For I don't know how long, the answer has been staring at me, at us, and itself, but because of tradition, culture, misguided and/or misinterpreted religious doctrine, and perhaps ego from some, the answer has been neglected and in some cases suppressed.  The answer is women.  Women have the power to transform communities, but they need a helping hand.

In my one year and a half of Peace Corps service, I have witnessed an amazing transformation in my community.  I speak of the work of my Moroccan counterpart and entrepreneur extraordinaire, Mrs. Amina Yabis who just ten years ago thought to herself that it wasn't right that the women of Sefrou, makers of some of the finest djellaba buttons in all of Morocco, gained so little from the sale of their handicraft.  In an effort to counter the middlemen, Amina and a group of women decided to take the leap of faith and form a cooperative with the goal of taking ownership of their handicraft.  With the help of Peace Corps volunteers, Amina and nine other women wrote the bylaws and secured a micro-credit loan, and just like that, the Cherry Buttons Cooperative was born.  As the coop gained notoriety for its distinctive selection of buttons, the coop began to grow.  Another volunteer arrived and helped the coop diversify its product line by providing weaving and other professional development training.  Then I arrived and began working with Amina and a former volunteer to help the coop secure a spot in the 2009 Santa Fe International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  She went, sold nearly everything in dollars, and came back with a good chunk of capital that was then applied towards the construction of a building for the cooperative.  In March of 2010, the cooperative moved all their looms to their new center and celebrated the completion of their new home.

The reason I share this story is to demonstrate that it only takes one person who is hungry and motivated to unite others, demand change, and effect change in their community.  Ten years ago, the cooperative was just an idea.  Today it has nearly 40 members, a handful of apprentices every year, provides steady employment for a number of women, produces quality products, travels all around Morocco showcasing its work, and is once again invited to participate in the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market for 2010.  

Amina believes there are many young women out there who just need the information, some start-up resources, and a support network to develop the next big enterprise.  One way by which to provide the training and empower young women is through her coop's sister association's annual Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). The camp is a week-long event that brings health professionals, lawyers, star athletes, Peace Corps volunteers, and business entrepreneurs under one roof to encourage young rural women to break the cycle of dependency and to take control of their future. By exposing the young women to successful role models and by engaging in dialogue with community leaders, the young women begin to formulate ideas of what they could become. The camp is a place to exchange ideas, to network, and to build a larger support network.

One former participant was Najoua Ammzon, a 20-year old high school graduate from the small village of Tafijirt, Morocco. Prior to Camp GLOW, Najoua was unemployed and lived with her parents in her village. But after being inspired by Amina, Najoua decided that she had a lot of potential and could never return to sitting at home in her village, nor would she be happy if she simply married and became a housewife. Najoua decided to move to Sefrou to live with relatives to continue her studies so that she could, in the future, start a small business project running a teleboutique or a cyber café. She began to take French and English classes as well as study computer science and handicrafts such as knitting and embroidery. She also now regularly visits and networks with Camp GLOW facilitators who work as artisans in Sefrou taking advantage of local workshops and trainings to improve her job skills.

Najoua is just one of many examples of participants who are on their way to breaking the cycle of dependency.  Her bold move and that of many others has the potential to save the world.  You may ask how that could be.  How could Najoua's plans, for instance, to continue her studies have such an impact? When asked this question, I point to the work of Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen who in his book titled Development as Freedom said that increasing the literacy of women has the effect of reducing infant mortality, reducing the overall number of childbirths, increasing life expectancy, improving the quality of life, expanding the overall economy, and creating a more representative democracy.  In a country where nearly 60% of the female population is illiterate, the need is immeasurable.  Camp GLOW coordinators and camp counselors are full believers that young rural women given the information and support will seek out opportunities that will improve their livelihood, that of their family, and that of their entire community.

So how can you help?  I and a number of Peace Corps volunteers are fundraising on behalf of the association for this year's Camp GLOW.  The camp is set to take place July 25-31.  Approximately 50 campers coming from some of the most remote villages from the Middle Atlas Mountains will gather in Temara near Morocco's capital of Rabat.  Funding for the camp is coming from multiple sources.  AIDS awareness funds, donations from partner organizations, and in-kind gifts will reduce the costs of the camp, but individual donations from you are key in making this camp possible.

Fortunately, the High Atlas Foundation (HAF), a 501(c)(3) organization founded by former Peace Corps volunteers that invests in the growth of small communities across Morocco, has offered to process and transfer all donations from U.S. donors to Morocco free-of-charge.

To donate online, simply click: http://www.highatlasfoundation.org/donate (Go to "make secure donation" in the middle).  Afterwards, VERY IMPORTANT, please send a quick email to haf@highatlasfoundation.org to let them know that your donation is for Camp GLOW.  HAF is a U.S. 501c3 nonprofit organization and will send receipts for tax purposes to all donors.

Given that HAF is donating their time in processing donations for us, I strongly urge you to use the online option.  I donated online and found the process to be super easy.  Any size donation is welcomed.  Just to give you an idea of how far your dollar can go in Morocco, an $85 donation covers nearly all expenses for one young woman for the entire week-long camp.

If you would like to contribute via snail mail, you can do so by making your check out to "High Atlas Foundation" and indicate in the check memo that it is for Camp GLOW (It is extremely important to make note of that on the check so as not to confuse your donation for Camp GLOW with a donation to the High Atlas Foundation)

Please mail your check to:

High Atlas Foundation
Park West Station
PO Box 21081
New York, NY 10025

Because this is a volunteer-run camp from both Peace Corps volunteers and the Golden Buttons Association, 100% of all donations go straight to program expenses.  There is no overhead whatsoever.

I want to thank you for taking the time to follow my blog and for supporting me throughout my Peace Corps experience.  I hope I can count on your support once again.  

I also want to thank everyone who joined the Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Morocco Cause on Facebook.  If you have yet to join, I invite you to do so: http://www.causes.com/causes/461569.  Thank you in advance for your donation.  The HAF is planning on sending us an update on June 1st of our total donations.  If you can, please donate by then.

Thank you very much for helping me, my fellow Peace Corps volunteers, and our Moroccan friends save the world.  

Interior and Exterior Affairs: Confronting the Lingerie Merchants

Continuing on with my observations and reflections on gender roles and public and private spheres in Moroccan society, I wanted to bring to your attention an interesting article about a movement in Saudi Arabia aimed at replacing male attendants or merchants of women's lingerie with female attendants. Once again, it was another bit of news that helped me to take note of my surroundings and to try to understand why Morocco would put men instead of women as vendors of women's undergarments.

The BBC article titled "Saudi lingerie trade in a twist" goes on to say that a lot of women feel uncomfortable providing information on sizes and preferences to male strangers. You may wonder why a guy couldn't just estimate from looking, but even that would be difficult because in Saudi Arabia they are dressed in black from head to toe. In Morocco, you have a full spectrum of western wear to the more traditional djellabas worn by both young and old, but more so by older generations. The djellabas do have a lot more spice in terms of colors, fabrics(even leopard and tiger prints), and other accents like hand-knotted buttons and embroidery, but they also do not reveal much in terms of waist size. The article adds that even men are just as uncomfortable asking questions of their female patrons who may find their comments to be inappropriate and  could potentially get them in trouble.

Remembering back to my days working at various retail stores, I can't imagine being asked to manage the women's lingerie section; not that I wouldn't have minded helping the ladies, but I just know that I would not be able to provide the customer service that they would have needed. I can speak about men's underwear all day, but about women's I only have information from mass media like the Victoria's Secret fashion shows that I watch occasionally to monitor market trends and other commentary from some voluptuous ladies that complain that the current glorified anorexic look in much of the western world is making it harder and harder for them to find undergarments that fit. I can only imagine how weird it must be for my fellow Moroccans who manage the women's undergarments and the women's clothing shops. It's true that it is often hard to find a candid salesperson, but would the men ever tell a woman that that dress does make her look fat? I don't think most men conservative or liberal would, but women may and it is this honesty and personal experience that would likely keep customers coming back. From a profit standpoint, I am glad that I was put in charge of managing the gangsta rapper wear instead; despite having no real affinity to the style, but it's certainly a better match.

Venezuela is pretty open about panties and underwear. Females are for the most part the attendants of women's undergarments and clothing at your typical department store, but I always enjoyed the male street vendors(buhoneros) who would have no qualms about the merchandise they were selling and would yell from the bottom of their lungs, "PANTALETAS, PANTALETAS, PANTALETAS DE EEUU!!!"(PANTIES, PANTIES, PANTIES FROM THE USA!!!). And if they didn't get your attention then, they would put them in front of your face and yell in your ear that they were on sale. I'm sure there may be a number of male street vendors in Moroccan souks (markets) who have no reservations about what they're selling and are yelling "SLIP, SLIP, SLIP MN FRANSA!!!"(PANTIES, PANTIES, PANTIES FROM FRANCE), but I have yet to hear any and I would be surprised to hear one since sometimes Moroccans add a "Hashak"(I beg your pardon) when they talk about their slip(underwear).

Given the uneasiness on both sides, it makes perfect sense to replace the male attendants with female ones. The movement and its organizer, Reem Asaad, acknowledge that doing so would put a large quantity of men out of work, and as such the government will be reluctant to make any drastic changes. Ms. Asaad is also going up against a very conservative society that believes that the women's place is in the home. Morocco is no Saudi Arabia, but they do have a number of things in common. If Morocco was to put in a ban on men staffing lingerie or women's clothing shops, they would also be putting a lot of men out of work--I do want to note that many women in Morocco do staff your more upscale boutiques and stores in your major cities, but in the medina[old city] and rural areas most of the vendors are men. Women in Morocco can work, drive, vote, and enjoy many of the same rights that women in the western world have, but there are societal expectations for women that have a religious or cultural basis that expect women to be solely, as my host father explained to me once, the ministers of interior.

I encourage you to read the full article because like Annika Sorenstans's debut in the PGA, the movement is bringing to light an issue that has been widely accepted or perhaps adhered to, but now that it is under a spotlight and because of the attention it is receiving, the powers that be are reconsidering the situation. Ms. Asaad is putting pressure not on government, but on the retailers themselves by organizing boycotts of male-staffed stores. She is also putting together lingerie training workshops for ladies, and she is spreading the word about her movement through social networking sites like Facebook, which I believe has a fan page where you can keep up with new developments.

I do like her approach in terms of confronting the issue at a consumer level.  I hope that the owners of the lingerie shops start taking notice and begin employing some women. I do not say this as an American or as a desensitized Venezuelan, but as a man who acknowledges his limited knowledge of women's undergarments and stands in solidarity with women who I believe can best equip a lady with the garments she needs to feel comfortable and look fabulous.

A correction of sorts: 06 Nov 2010 - When I wrote this blog, I wrote that I had yet to hear a Moroccan street vendor advertise that he was selling women's underwear.  Well, the other day as I was walking through Khenifra's souq, I heard a young kid probably about 15 years old yelling in auctioneer mode "SLIP, SLIP, SLIP, miyatayn ryal (10DH)".  I was happy to hear it.  I only wished I had been walking with a female so that I could then observe how he would go about promoting the quality of his product.  Oh well, next time, inshallah.

Tribute to the Sympathetic Interlocutor

I want to dedicate this entry to all those sympathetic interlocutors in the world.  You know who you are.  When you've heard someone struggling to vocalize their thoughts, you have been there to fill in the blank.  You're The living thesaurus ready to jump in with the right word at the right time.  You are there to interject a little bit of context to explain what may seem like someone else's odd or offensive behavior.  You are the bridge builder, the peacemaker, and the best friend any Peace Corps volunteer can have.

My Darija-language tutor Ali and I on one of our many sessions

So what is the character profile of a sympathetic interlocutor?  How do you become one?  My guess is that the individual has had to struggle learning a foreign language at some point in time, and perhaps has had to adapt to customs and traditions different than his/her own.  This struggle has forged a sense of compassion for those who are deep in the struggle.  The sympathetic interlocutor feels the pain and the sense of helplessness because he/she too has been ridiculed for conjugating incorrectly, mispronouncing, not inflecting properly, and saying or doing completely inappropriate things without even attempting to do so.  He or she has also felt out of place and sometimes alienated by the strange culture surrounding him/her and bewildered by what seems to be an indecipherable mumble jumble.  He or she has felt the humbling experience of coming from an environment where he/she felt in control of his/her domain to another setting where he/she is overjoyed by the accomplishment of the simplest of tasks.  

The sympathetic interlocutor loves playing nonverbal charades and often cares more about communicating than communicating correctly.  He/she will often mimic you as you try to contort your lips, tongue, and entire face to say whatever you're trying to say.  If he/she happens to be your language tutor, he/she will repeat the same word a hundred times until you finally remember it the 101th time.  


Fortunately, I have come across many sympathetic interlocutors, but I have also met a number of not so sympathetic ones.  The non-sympathetic ones will sometimes laugh, ridicule, and will show no patience whatsoever.  I am encouraged when a sympathetic interlocutor tells the unsympathetic ones to respect the struggle of the language learner and urges them to empathize.  I am also grateful to the sympathetic interlocutors for introducing me to his/her circle of friends and family and sharing a bit of history about why, in his/her point of view, people in his/her corner of the world do what they do.     


I certainly could not have gotten this far in my Peace Corps service without the help of countless sympathetic interlocutors.  One of the many sympathetic interlocutors is my tutor and friend Ali.  What's amazing about Ali is that he taught himself English.  He learned from a few books, lots of American films, and from interaction with past Peace Corps volunteers.  He graduated with a degree in sociology, which he studied in French, another language that he speaks impeccably.  I am grateful to know him, to have been his student, and to have shared many a cultural tid bits that only served to reaffirm how similar we all are.  For all you sympathetic interlocutors, keep up the hard work of translating, clarifying misunderstandings, resolving disputes, and just making the world a more harmonious place to live in.  Thank you and God bless you all.  


P.S. You may ask why the formal "sympathetic interlocutor" title.  Our Peace Corps language proficiency exam rubric had that titled scattered throughout the various levels and sub-levels of language proficiency.  For example, at the beginner level it states that it will take a sympathetic interlocutor to have the patience to figure out what the heck is coming out of your mouth.  At the intermediate, you're making coherent sounds, but it will take a sympathetic interlocutor to put your sounds into comprehensible sentences.  At the advanced level, your language is flowing, but your English-structured Arabic may not make a lot of sense from time to time so it takes a sympathetic interlocutor to translate your Arabic to a more culturally-adaptable format.    

Interior and Exterior Affairs: Comparing Glass Ceilings, USA and Morocco

During my senior year in college, I had to take a number of gender courses not by choice but because they were the only ones I could fit into my full-time work schedule while staying on track for graduation.  In one class I was one of three guys in a class of 30 and in another much bigger class I would estimate that we were a just a little over 10%.  It was a real drag to go to some of the classes because often the subject matter focused on how men continued to oppress women in every facet of society.  One class went segment by segment showing statistics on the disparity in education, income, occupations, media, and sports just to name a few.  It was tough to show up day in and day out to hear how we men conspire on a regular basis to keep women down.  I promised my female friends that I did not meet in dark, shady rooms to discuss strategies on how to ensure women could continue to earn 20-30% less than what a man makes.  The classes began to sound like a broken record.  Then, towards the end of gender course, there was an interesting development that made everything click for me.

Image may be copyrighted

Back in 2003, Annika Sorenstan, the number one golfer on the LPGA tour, requested to play in a PGA tour event.  At first, I didn't think much of it.  I thought that it was a bold move to attempt to compete with the best male golfers.  I was surprised to read that some male golfers did not want Annika to participate.  I thought, "Why would they object, did they feel threatened, and what is it really that they're objecting to?"  Vijay Singh, the number two golfer in the PGA at the time, dropped out of the event and said she had "no business" playing with men and others said it was a publicity stunt.

Many female organizations supported Annika's move and began exposing a side of golf that I had not really been aware of.  Several organizations built campaigns pushing for changes to the many all-male membership policies of many golf country clubs.  The organizations claimed that the policies of these exclusive establishments were discriminatory. The campaigners pointed to the advertising that goes on during golf events to demonstrate how important it is to gain access to the country club.  The sponsors of the marquee events are usually some of the biggest and most prestigious corporations in the world: Rolex, Accenture, Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, BAE, Audi, Polo, and upscale spirits companies round the list.  To the women organizations, the country club is a place where the CEOs of some of these sponsors gather to iron out a merger, secure venture capital investments, or decide to launch their IPO while playing out a round of 18 holes.  Women CEOs or women who want to climb the corporate ladder, unable to join the boys, miss out on the wheeling and dealing that may take place.

I slowly began to understand why my gender class professors kept repeating the same tune. It was not to bash men, but to expose how the oppression is systematic.  It was to show how both men and women sometimes discriminate or perpetuate oppression upon one another sometimes deliberately and sometimes without even thinking.  We all do a number of things as second nature for a number of reasons: sometimes because mom said so, tradition, culture, or perhaps religion.  Before Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, or Ghandi, the thought that certain rights or privileges belonged only to a select few was widely accepted and adhered to by a vast majority in both the oppressors and oppressed camp.  Both camps content with the status quo or scared of change would have probably justified their stance by saying that things are simply the way they are and that things would likely remain the same so why fight it?  Why not just adapt to it?  These revolutionaries did not believe that premise and boldly began to expose the injustice and to preach the gospel of self-determination, and over time a number of people began to see their point of view and joined their cause.  It took guts to stand out there despite what seemed like an insurmountable resistance, but their audacity brought about change and a new way of thinking about what's right and wrong.

So when Annika made the choice to give the PGA a shot, some people were, not surprisingly, upset with her decision because she was confronting a norm that a number of folks in the golf community had grown accustomed to and just felt her appearance ran contrary to the way things were.  She did not get political on her decision.  The women organizations did.  The story of the the all-male country club as a discriminatory franchise got more attention in the media.  Some of the women organizations reiterated that the all-male country club did indeed reinforce the glass ceiling.  The golfers that stated that her move was a publicity stunt perhaps did not want their environment exposed and did not want it described like the women organizations were describing it.  They probably did not feel the same way that the women organizations did and maybe thought having grown up under the all-male franchise that their tradition was reverent.  Annika's move was not revolutionary, but it was noteworthy for how it made some folks in the golf community a little uncomfortable.

The all-male country club and restaurants still exist today in the good ol' US of A.  Women organizations are challenging some of them in court (You can catch up on some of the recent developments at the Discrimination and Country Clubs blog).  With more pressure, they may become a fixture of the past, but for now they will continue to welcome some very wealthy and well connected male patrons who simply feel more comfortable in a room full of dudes because it's what they know and how they've grown up and who may be oblivious to how their actions affect others or there may be others who could be conspiring in the darkest and shadiest of rooms on ways to further the oppression.

Anytime I wish to speak about an aspect of a society different than my own, I first take a look at how my society is doing with regards to that particular aspect.  For example, in my last blog, I wrote about the segregation of the sexes when it comes to the outdoor cafe in Morocco.  It would be easy to point fingers at Morocco's almost exclusive male establishments and regard them as discriminatory and perhaps oppressive, but the U.S., despite its many advances in bringing parity between genders, it still has places like the all-male country clubs and upscale restaurants much like Morocco that are exclusively male.  Morocco has no law preventing women from going to cafes, but it has social norms that are widely accepted especially in more rural areas where men are generally expected to interact with other men outside while women have their home as their conference space.  I wrote that my host mother and sisters were not disheartened by not being able to visit the cafe because they were not drawn to the large screen televisions showing football games, did not like the cloud of cigarette smoke that hovers idly in some cafes, and did not go because their friends were not going there.  Their responses made sense, but then I thought about what the women organizations had said about how the country club is the de facto board room for many CEO's.

Much like the all-male country club, work and politics is often a topic of conversation at the cafe.  Personally in many occasions, I've expressed a difficulty in finding an association or an individual that could help me with a specific task or project, and in some instances my cafe friends have been able to point me to people they know that could help.  I am pretty confident that in many cases this networking goes on at the cafe among government officials and business owners—a dear friend of mine once said that because the marquee cafes are better lit, have heating and AC, and have more comfortable chairs than the municipal offices, the cafe becomes the default city hall.  Also, because at times men travel distances to find employment, knowledge of the country and the economic environment of other areas is exchanged.  Thus, because women are absent, this wealth of information and any negotiations rest with the male cafe goers.  In this regard, the country club and the Moroccan cafe seem to be on par. 

So how do you remedy the situation?  How can Moroccan women entrepreneurs succeed without this wealth of information or exchange?  Back in November of last year, a Seattle-based NGO called The Center for Women and Democracy brought a delegation of women CEOs, lawyers, community leaders, and students to hold a forum to identify some of the obstacles facing Moroccan female leaders and to provide a place where ideas could be exchanged.  At the event I met a number of remarkable women who were trying to fill the information exchange void that exists among Moroccan women.  One association was led by Ilham Zhiri, Vice-President of AFEM, Association des Femmes Chefs d’Entreprise du Maroc.  Some of objectives of Ms. Zhiri's organization are to orient, inform, and assist women entrepreneurs in their search for a competitive advantage for their businesses, create a network of women business owners, encourage entrepreneurship among women, promote the image of women business owners, and organize forums and seminars for women to learn and to network with one another.   Another was a consortium of women who had pooled funds to invest in women-owned enterprises.  And in the political front, a few women who were part of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs were providing campaign training for women interested in running for elected office.  These are just a few examples of many exemplary women leaders I met who I believe will change the business, political, and perhaps the social environment of Morocco.

But will all Moroccan women benefit from their efforts?  After the event, I spoke to my counterpart, Amina Yabis, who I accompanied to the event and asked her what she thought about the different women she networked with.  She was skeptical that many of the initiatives by these dynamic organizations would ever reach the rural parts of Morocco.  She explained that some of the city women would never inconvenience themselves by going out to a remote part of the country where amenities are sometimes non-existent to hold their seminars.  Rural women, on the other hand, generally do not have funds to travel to the capital or another major city or they may be discouraged from traveling by their family or community especially if they are to travel on their own for safety reasons as most travelers are men and verbal and sometimes physical harassment is common.

My counterpart also noted that many city women cannot relate to the lives of rural women.  Some of the city women having traveled or studied abroad may act a little more pompous than usual and that attitude is sometimes reflected in their language when they make fun of the tough living conditions some of the women face on a daily basis.  Given this huge divide in lifestyles, it seems that the efforts of the Moroccan women in the urban hubs may take a while to reach a large swath of women who could seriously use the help.

My counterpart's remedy has been her association's community outreach work.  Through the Golden Buttons Association she organized a number of women to demand literacy courses from the Ministry of Education for adult women.  With the help of Office of Development and Cooperation (ODCO) and Sefrou Delegation of Artisana, she was also able to get training on how to establish a cooperative and to get weaving training for herself and a few other ladies.  This collective action was later converted to a cooperative named the Cherry Buttons Cooperative that now represents 40 women in the almost exclusively women-produced djellaba button handicraft.  Peace Corps helped her in the development from an association to a cooperative and they continue to collaborate with her on the formation of empowerment camps for young girls.  I will expand a bit more on the philosophy of the camp in a later blog, but basically the camp's target group is rural young women who for some reason or another dropped out of school, may be illiterate, and may not have access to resources or other women to connect to that could lend support to their micro-enterprise idea.

Last summer a university student that came to Morocco to study Arabic came to my hometown to find out about some of the work that I had been doing.  I explained that I was helping a women's coop that wishes to become a major vendor of the djellaba button handicraft, a craft that is almost entirely produced by women but sold by men.  I was so entranced by my zeal to help these women gain parity that I failed to recognize the societal implications of my activities.  She asked, "By helping these women over the men bazzarist, aren't you going to be putting some men out of work?"  That very well could be and by putting some of these middlemen out of work, I may be messing with the established Moroccan fabric making it difficult for the men to bring home the Halal bacon and adding more to the homemaker than she can handle.

When I feel I may be messing with the fabric of Moroccan society, I am encouraged, however, by a book I read and also blogged about titled Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen.  In this book, the author states and I'm paraphrasing to the max here that an increase in women's literacy has the effect of reducing infant mortality, reducing the number of births because women who continue going to school put off marriage and child rearing for a later age, changes the dynamics of the home as women who earn an income feel more empowered by their economic independence, and creates a more representative democracy as more women run for political office or participate in the process.  In a country where women's illiteracy stands at over 50% nationwide and even higher in rural areas, I feel it is absolutely necessary to try to work with women.

One time I saw my host father get chewed out by my host mother for bringing something for dinner (don’t know exactly what because my Arabic was still pretty rough at the time) that did not please her.  I was surprised by the outbreak, but rather happy to see that she didn’t hold back.  My host father was speechless.  Noticing that I had witnessed the entire ordeal, he turned to me and said in Spanish, “Yo soy el Ministro del Exterior y ella la Ministra del Interior”(I am the Minister of Exterior and she is the Minister of Interior).  That statement I think is very true of the understanding that each sex has of its role in some parts of Morocco today.  He doesn't infringe on her territory and she on his.  When either does, then naturally a scolding is due.

Morocco has made great strides over the last ten years to change the perception of the gender roles that my host dad has grown up under and probably wholeheartedly upholds.  The advent of the Moudawana, Morocco's new Family Code, gave women more rights in the case of divorce, custody of children, and inheritance issues.  In addition, the Kingdom put in a place a quota reserving 12% of all municipality seats for women.  These two measures are a step forward towards opening a path to women.  These early pioneers who have filled these inaugural posts will hopefully pass on their knowledge and experience to younger women and hence recreate their own support network thereby supplanting the need to join the boys at the cafe.  While I think it is necessary for women to gather to create a collective front, I do hope that at some point in time there will be a fusion of the interior and exterior ministries like there has been in the states.

The U.S. still has a ways to go in terms of bridging the gap between the sexes, but with more women attaining higher levels of education, joining the workforce or managing their own enterprise, and running for political office, the line between what is solely male and female has become blurry.  I am not advocating for a U.S. style work and household environment.  There are a lot of things about the U.S. lifestyle that I find dysfunctional.  I am only suggesting that there may be women who may not wish to fill a certain gender role and may wish to fulfill the dream of becoming the next industry leader and could probably be a better minister of exterior than her husband and that aspiration should be supported.

The country club is a great example that shows that many U.S. Americans are still working out territorial issues between the sexes.  Discrimination still persists.  Oppression is still in place and we sometimes do it without even thinking.  I'm not sure if Moroccan colleges and universities include gender courses in their curriculum.  These courses are helpful because at some point a Moroccan Annika may presents herself and with the help of women organizations a student may then finally see how a seemingly harmless and culturally accepted all-male environment that only a few seem to question could also be a place that is reinforcing the glass-ceiling in Moroccan society.