And by last minute, I literally mean last minute! I decided two hours before the bus left to go! My friend and I jumped on the bus as it was pulling out of the station and we spent the next 5 hours on it giggling about how adventurous we are.
We were greeted by the most beautiful view I've seen in Morocco
This beautiful mountain town in the north of Morocco is called the "city in the sky" because it is painted completely in blue and is at a very high altitude. I fell in love with it immediately! Perhaps it was the good ol mountain air, or all the fresh goat cheese our hostel gave us at breakfast. We spent the day hiking in the mountains (in order to snap that 1st beautiful picture in this blog), and came back to a refreshing meal of Moroccan pastilla and fresh squeezed orange. Our afternoon was spent wandering the sprawling medina and shopping in fragrant soap shops.
I reluctantly left the next day for Rabat, our short one day/two night visit was such a tease, I wish I had time to return.
The most difficult part of that weekend was returning to studying for my Gender and Sexuality midterm the next day. Throughout the semester, I've read dozens of articles in that class about the reflection of the patriarchal society in Morocco's laws and religious practices. My Moroccan family, in an effort to help me study, asked me to discuss my readings with them. I could barely get the first sentence out - "well, we're learning that since men are the ones who interpret the religious texts, the laws concerning women reflect their will" - before my host brother swiftly cut me off and said "No, that is absolutely wrong. You cannot interpret the Qu'ran, it is not like Christianity. The words of the Qu'ran have never been changed. Everything that is written in there is law." I tried a different angle, and asked the mother why she veils herself if it is not obligatory in Islam. My mom was quick to correct me and say that it is in the Qu'ran that women must be veiled at all times. Mohammed himself has said that "women must be veiled" and you cannot argue with the prophet. At that point, I decided not to point out that the only time Mohammed said women should be veiled was so that you could tell your Muslim wives apart from your slaves... Logically speaking, if slavery ceases to exist, then women technically aren't obligated to the wear the veil. I purposely did not engage in argument with my family because I did not want to offend them so early on in our relationship.
But, there is so much that I still wanted to say! I wanted to tell them that the Morocco prioritizes family structure above the rights of women, and this is due to the fact that men interpret religious texts and canonize their own ideas into laws. Up until the massive restructuring of the family law in 2004, women legally had to obey their husbands. Girls who were raped had to marry their rapists so they wouldn't disrupt the harmony of their communities (god forbid an unmarried virgin be allowed to walk the streets...). Anyone who housed an abused female refugee could go to prison for up to 5 years. I could give more examples, but the point is clear.
After dinner, when my host brothers and father retired to the television, my Moroccan mom talked to more about gender roles. She said that there is a fundamental difference between males and females, so they cannot have the same rights. She believes that Islam allows for women's rights, but feels uncomfortable discussing reasons for their rights outside of the Qu'ran. My mom falls into the Arh'ari school of thought; those who believe that justice, human rights, and women's rights can be found in religious texts, and are allowed to exist if textual evidence exists as well. In the Mu'tazili school of thought; the notion of justice is innate and based on independent rational. You do not need religious texts to determine basic human rights. My mom went on to joke with that the only bad thing about having only sons is that they aren't obligated to help her clean or cook. She said this in a lighthearted, "haha, oh well" sort of tone, but I took it more seriously. My mom works as a nurse five days a week, and comes every night to cook dinner and clean all the dishes without help. She uses her lunch break to come back and clean the apartment. Every Sunday she does a huge apartment clean that takes her 10 hours while the rest of her male family sits in cafés. Yet, she is totally fine with this because "that's how life is" according to Islam.
All in all, it was an enriching and eyeopening conversation to hear my relatively liberal family talk about their conceptions of gender norms. I'm looking forward to more rich conversations.
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