There are far too many things for me to comment on, and way too few hours in the day. Some links for your reading pleasure:
- Charlotte has an excellent piece on “authenticity” on Morocco that makes use of a recent Guardian piece on finding the authentic in Casablanca (also worth a read).
- Naomi Wolf states the ridiculously obvious about Muslim women – read this before reading Phyllis Chesler’s b.s. against Wolf.
- Sudanese blogger Kizzie is questioning the arrest of Lubna Hussein (who was allegedly arrested for wearing trousers).
- Marcy at Body On the Line has written about the visa apartheid currently happening in Israel (I’m about to write a piece for Global Voices on this as well).
And on the negative front, after reading Sarah Braasch’s ridiculous piece on how stupid Moroccans are, I’m left wondering if there’s another Morocco nobody told me about.,
8 replies on “Links for 9.2.09”
I’m going to be an awful male chauvinist here, but when I read Sarah Braasch – “Taxi drivers tried to kidnap me. Soldiers harassed me. Strange men tried to lure me into their shops, their homes, their beds. I was baffled at the rudeness of these men who felt absolutely no compunction in trying to touch and grab me” – you wonder how come she didn’t post a photo – it does sound like Angelina Jolie finding herself locked in in a high security prison…
Seriously! Although I received my fair share of harassment, only once did it go past the verbal, and taxi drivers and soldiers both were supremely polite.
You know though, I did have this one friend who was particularly well-endowed – no matter what she did, she would get harassed constantly. It got so bad that she barely ventured outside the house. She could even wear a djellaba and get chased down the street.
Perhaps Ms. Braasch suffers from gigantomastia.
This is not to deny that there are far too many perverts on the streets (I once was close to jumping at & smashing the head of one of those who was harassing – my mother and then 12-years old sister, for God’s sake), but then just look around and you notice quite a lot of young girls wandering around in clothing largely as daring as what you may see in Europe. My dear wife used to walk around in high heels, black stockings and mini-skirts without being seemingly traumatised – she still does, but has skipped the mini-skirt. I think it is a question of attitude: if you stand your ground and yell back you will fare better than if you faint at the first wolf whistle. There is however a major education effort to be made here, plus law enforcement of course.
Heh, I definitely push the boundaries like your wife. I enjoy it. But I also know what I’m getting into (perhaps Ms. Braasch did not? Who knows).
I also agree completely, however, that the proper response is to yell back. I hear so much of the old “But the women LIKE it!” rhetoric even from young, otherwise very intelligent and enlightened young men. Okay, fine – perhaps some women DO like it. But perhaps the rest are just too afraid to speak up.
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Bye and…keep up the good work!
D.G.
Italy
I’ve noticed an ethnic divide in matters of harassment: while no one in her right mind appreciates it, Moroccan women certainly seem to respond better, either by yelling back or ignoring. As for foreign women living in Morocco, personality is really the decisive factor. I’ve seen bland foreign women terrified at setting their foot outside of Marjane, Chez Paul or Mango, and young Moroccan pin-ups strutting self-confidently around Bab el Had or Maarif.
Agreed. I decided really early on that I was just going to deal with it because I was alone in the country and wanted to travel. As a result, everywhere I’ve been in Morocco (which is a huge portion of the country, but sadly nowhere south of Essaouira), I’ve gone by myself. And honestly, I never found it THAT BAD. Offensive, yes, but as I reiterate whenever it comes up, I was only groped ONCE in two years of walking around by myself on a daily basis. Once. That’s a better track record than in the US.
Verbal harassment sucks. It’s disgusting. But as the old saying goes, stick and stones may break my bones…
Agreed. I decided really early on that I was just going to deal with it because I was alone in the country and wanted to travel. As a result, everywhere I've been in Morocco (which is a huge portion of the country, but sadly nowhere south of Essaouira), I've gone by myself. And honestly, I never found it THAT BAD. Offensive, yes, but as I reiterate whenever it comes up, I was only groped ONCE in two years of walking around by myself on a daily basis. Once. That's a better track record than in the US.
Verbal harassment sucks. It's disgusting. But as the old saying goes, stick and stones may break my bones……