Moroccan Travels... The Roman ruins of Volubilis

This post is very delayed as Justin and I actually traveled to Volubilis back in January! But it was an amazingly impressive site, so I wanted to be sure to share it with you.

Many people are not aware of this, but part of what is now Morocco included some of the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire. There are several archaeological sites throughout the country, and the most well-known is called Volubilis in English ("Oualili" in Moroccan Arabic). Volubilis is fairly close to our town, so we decided to make a day trip of it. 

Approaching the site through the hills north of Meknes, massive white stone shapes appear against the surrounding farmland. And as you get closer, the monumental architecture begins to come into focus, and you are taken aback at the scale of the place. Unlike archaeological sites in the United States or much of Europe, you are largely left to your own devices, and allowed to wander, climb, and touch where you will... though guards will start to whistle at you if you are too close to something they decide you shouldn't be close to. 

Most of the remains speak for themselves, but our pictures really don't do justice to the gorgeous mosaics that you just happen to come across at seemingly random intervals. They are unfortunately left exposed to the elements and some have pretty significant weathering damage, but it's still a very different experience to view them in situ rather than in a museum.

We strolled around for a few hours and I think we could have spent days there! I selected some photos that hopefully will give you a sense of the scope and beauty that we saw in Volubilis:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jews in Morocco... Part One

I just returned from a week of travels in Rabat and Marrakech, helping the Peace Corps to plan and run some training sessions with the newest group of Volunteers. On Monday, I had the amazing opportunity to attend services in a Marrakech synagogue for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year). It was a small group of people attending services, no more than 20, in a little building that you'd never know was a synagogue from the street. Through the experience, I felt like I joined a rich Jewish history in Morocco that, while dwindling today, began nearly 2,000 years ago and saw at its highest close to 350,000 Jewish people.

I've learned a bit about Jewish history in Morocco and thought some basics might be interesting to share. The history of the Jews in Morocco began during the spread of the Roman empire, in which an increasing number of Jews began to settle in what is now modern-day Morocco. Over the centuries, as rule over Morocco shifted between different groups (Romans to Arabs, Almohads to the Spanish, multiple ruling dynasties to the French, and finally, independence), the treatment of the Jewish population has ranged from very good to heavily strained. Following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the majority of Jews emigrated from Morocco to Israel, and today, Israel is home to nearly one million Jews of Moroccan descent, around 15% of the nation's total population. Today, approximately 7,000 Jews reside in Morocco, mostly in Casablanca, and some in other major cities (Fes, Marrakech, Meknes, Rabat). Many Moroccans with whom I have spoken are quick to point out that Morocco has a strong relationship with the Jewish people; in fact, the king's top advisor is Jewish.

Below are a few photos from the Monday service as well as some photos of Jewish sites that I have seen on my travels in Morocco. As I continue to learn more about Jewish history over my time here, I'll be sure to share it. Wishing all of my Jewish family and friends a sweet, healthy, and happy New Year filled with inspiration, forgiveness, and love!

Just before Rosh Hashanah services in Marrakech - the view from the women's section.

Mezuzzah at the synagogue in Marrakech.

A synagogue in the old medina in Fes.

Remains of a synagogue in El Jadida.

Overlooking a Jewish cemetery in Marrakech.

Gender in Morocco

Last month, I spent a few days in Rabat doing planning for the year with Peace Corps Morocco's Gender and Development Committee (also known as GAD – as Peace Corps loves their acronyms!). At the end of our training in November, my group elected me to represent them in GAD, something I was really excited about as gender issues (particularly for women) are in a state of change in Morocco and it's really exciting to learn more about it and to help provide resources for other volunteers. 

The GAD group works to support all Peace Corps Morocco volunteers (about 250 throughout the country right now) in  understanding and appreciating gender roles in Morocco, and provides resources and initiatives geared towards gender and development – from pairing with nonprofits, to creating women's empowerment camps, to developing small one-off programs. I am working on developing a website to house all of GAD's resources and to provide a space for volunteers to better collaborate together and share best practices. More on GAD in a future post, but today I wanted to talk a little about women's rights in Morocco and to provide some historical context based on what I have learned so far. I have been fortunate to meet with both a professor and a PhD student from the Center for Studies and Research on Women at the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fes, and a lot of the below historical background and cultural insights come from them. 

I'll be talking a lot more about gender roles from my own experiences in future posts, but to start I thought it might be helpful to have a bit of context on the history and culture. A lot of people know about Morocco's recent constitutional changes, but perhaps might not know some of the steps leading up to it and the challenges still facing women. Bullet-pointed to make your history lesson as painless as possible :)

• 1996: Changes in Morocco's constitution grant women equal civil and political rights related to freedom of movement, opinion, and association, as well as access to public office, employment, and education. 
• 2002: 35 women are permitted access to Morocco's Chamber of Representatives, and the percentage raises from less than 1 percent to 10.8 percent.
• 2003: Morocco's new family code is adopted (called the Mudawana, based on a school of Islamic Law) and emphasizes equality in relation to the family – Both women and men share joint responsibility in the rights of marriage, property relations, divorce, repudiation, child custody, and inheritance law provisions.  You can read an overview of the Mudawana provisions here.
• 2004: The Nationality Code is developed, in accordance with the Mudawana Family Code (see 2003). Women who are married to foreign Muslim men now have the right to pass on Moroccan nationality to their children. (In case you are curious like I was about the use of the word “Muslim” in there – I asked and learned that men have the right to marry non-Muslim women, but women cannot marry a non-Muslim man, from Morocco or from another country). 
• 2009: Responding to a minimal decrease in gender-based violence in the 5 years following the Mudawana (and protests from women's rights groups), Morocco begins to create special information centers for women on domestic violence, along with judicial assistance to women who are victims of violence, and special training for lawyers in women's rights. 
• 2011: Starting with the February 20 movement and ending with a draft passing on July 1, the new constitution is intended to provide men and women with equal civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights.

So these are all clearly strong advances, but there are a number of challenges that Morocco continues to face on implementation:

• Illiteracy rates are very high (35-40% for women), which is preventing many women from full knowledge of their change in rights.
• Poverty is a big problem when it comes to legal fees and the means to get around.
• Cultural norms inhibit implementation: Discriminatory gender practices, the archetypal man in Moroccan culture in a commanding role, and limited social mobility for women.

With all of this happening, it's an incredibly interesting time to be living in Morocco. The gender-related issues that I and other volunteers face are very deeply tied to cultural norms here, so my role with GAD is to help volunteers to acknowledge these cultural norms and challenges and to develop strategies in the classroom and in their communities to engage in open dialogue and empower both men and women to think about their roles and relationships. I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences with all of you to help you better understand the role of gender in Moroccan culture – so more to come!

A History Lesson

Happy December everyone! I have been looking forward to this month for several reasons – it’s the last month that (hopefully) Justin and I will be living with a host family, as we are looking for a place of our own to move into in January; I am excited to see how Moroccans bring in the New Year; and most importantly, I am counting down the days until I get this friggin’ cast removed from my leg! I am in Rabat now for a check-up tomorrow (Monday) morning, so I’ll give more updates after my appointment – but right now the countdown has me getting the cast off on December 30th or 31st, so keep your fingers crossed that all goes according to schedule and that the doctors work that day!

It’s been a fun few weeks spending time with our new host family in Tiflet and getting to know the town. Last weekend, Justin and I went with our host mom and sister to visit our host mom's brother, sister-in-law, and sister-in-law's family in Khemisset, which is the next city over (only about a 20-30 minute drive). I soon found out that the sister-in law and her family are Amazigh and I spent Saturday evening watching beautiful videos of Amazigh dancing and music, and learning some dance moves from my new extended family. As I was thinking back upon the weekend, I realized that likely most of you don’t know what Amazigh means (I did not before coming here) so I thought that today’s blog post could serve as a quick history lesson for everyone! I will commence with putting on my teacher hat now :)


Who:
The Imazighen people, plural of Amazigh. You might recognize the word "Berber" as a term used; however, "Berber" is believed to have been derived from the word "barbarian," whereas the word "Amazigh" is believed to mean "free people" or "free and noble men" and to many the word "Berber" is considered offensive.

Amazigh jewelry

When:
Archaeological evidence suggests that Morocco’s first settlers (known as the Capsian people) arrived between 10,000 and 6,000 B.C.E., after the end of the last ice age. It is from these earliest inhabitants that the Imazighen people (plural of Amazigh) are believed to have descended.

Amazigh pottery in Marrakesh

Why:
Following the ice age, Morocco’s landscape was largely made up of grassy savanna, particularly on the coastal plains, which drew inhabitants with an extremely fertile land that are well-suited to cultivating crops and rearing cattle. The Imazighen people developed into numerous groups and inhabited most of the land that makes up present-day Morocco (in addition to other parts of Northern Africa), although in the years following many of the groups moved to mountainous regions as precautions against foreign invaders.

An Amazigh silk hanging; also designs are reminiscent of
tattoos that many Imazighen people have

What:
Today in Morocco, about 40% of its people acknowledge an Amazigh identity, though likely many more have Berber ancestry. Imazighen are identified primarily by language but also by traditional customs and culture – such as the distinctive music and dances.  

A book that I am hoping to read soon!

 
Amazigh Language:
The language of the Imazighen people has many dialects, but the 3 main dialects used in Morocco are called Tashelhit (spoken in southwest Morocco), Tamazight (spoken in the Middle Atlas region) and Tarifit (or Rifia, spoken in the Rif area of northern Morocco). In our town, it seems like a good number of people speak Tamazight so I may try to learn at least some basic words.

Sample Tamazight text - what it means is
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience
and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. "
(Article 1 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Amazigh Music:
From what I have read, Amazigh culture is extraordinarily rich and diverse, with a variety of musical styles that range from bagpipes and oboe (kind of like Celtic music) to pentatonic music (reminiscent of Chinese music), combined with African rhythms and the use of oral storytelling. These traditions have been kept alive by small bands of musicians who travel from village to village to entertain at weddings and other social occasions with songs, tales, and poetry.

To hear some of the more traditional music, here's a sample website (not a lot in English but you can click to artists and watch videos). To hear some more modern takes, here's another site to try.

A moussim, or traditional festival, in a small town in the Middle Atlas mountains

Imazighen People Today:
While the Imazighen people have a storied past in Morocco, their heritage was not always recognized by the state. After Morocco won independence in 1956 the King sought to solidify a unified national identity and banned Tamazight in schools and public places (such as hospitals and the courts). Eventually there were 2 major Amazigh revolts, one in 1973 and a second in the 1980s, both of which were suppressed by the Moroccan government and for years, Imazighen people who continued to assert their identity were jailed. By the 1990s the Imazighen movement had built up momentum but little was done until the current king took over (Mohamed VI - whose mother is Amazigh). He reintroduced Tamazight in primary schools and commissioned a research institute to develop a curriculum and promote study of the language. And in the recent constitutional changes Tamazight became an official state language.

 

Below is the official Amazigh flag, adopted by the Amazigh World Congress in 1998. Each color in the flag symbolizes a territory inhabited by the Imazighen people:

- blue symbolizes the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean;

- green symbolizes nature and the green mountains;

- yellow symbolizes the sands of the Sahara Desert

The letter in the middle of the flag is a yaz, which symbolizes a "free man", the meaning of Amazigh, and is in red, the color of life and also the color of resistance.

 

There are so many parts of Amazigh and Moroccan culture that I have yet to learn so this is just a small sampling – hopefully, over 2 years, I’ll be able to impart lots of new lessons as I learn more myself! Lots more to come on Moroccan music in general – Justin and I have been spending time at our Youth Center where they LOVE playing music and singing and dancing together, and last week we went to a concert at a local high school with about 95% Moroccan music - the remaining 5% was a small rock band who seemed to really like Bob Dylan :)

And by the way - if there are any aspects of Morocco or Moroccan culture that you are particularly interested in learning, just leave me a comment and I’ll try to address it in a future blog post. Sending everyone best wishes for a great month, and more to come soon!