rec.travel Morocco FAQ

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Question:Is it safe?

Yes, compared to Europe and North America; unless, of course, one happens to be a Moroccan dissident, although even that situation is slowly improving. Violent crime is comparatively rare, the hot spots for muggings and robbery are Casablanca and Tangier. Scams of all natures, however, are everywhere. The government is aware of the very bad press the latter have caused in Western media and consequent loss of tourist income - police and soldiers are deployed around some of the large hotels and at some major tourist spots to eject the hustlers. This has had a major effect in the main towns - it is now possible to walk unharrassed around Marrakech and Fes in a way that was unthinkable several years ago; the smaller towns however retain their coteries of hustlers.

The only place where there has been endemic violence, although is now much calmer, is the disputed territory of the Western Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara) in the Deep south. The rebel Polisario movement and the Moroccan army have declared a ceasefire, but unexploded mines still litter the area, and express permission to gain access to some areas must be obtained from a Moroccan Embassy, although the process of opening up large parts of the Deep South is well underway.

Question:How bad is the hustling?

Hustling in Morocco has given the country an infamous reputation, and lost it a whole generation of Western tourists. However, the serious efforts by the government to tackle the situation in the past 10 years have made a real difference - in Fez and Marrakech one often has to search out a guide, and it is possible to walk freely around the major centres. The campaign has not reached the remoter towns, nor to the parts of cities not frequented by package tourists, and you can still expect taxi hustling in Rissani, carpet shop friendships in Tafraoute, and a barrage of hassle at Marrakech bus station. Combined with the crackdown on hustlers has come a Singapore style campaign to teach the population the phrase "You're Welcome in Morocco", to be uttered - often repeatedly - at tourists.

Even where pervasive hustling remains, it is still a great nuisance, but after a time one begins to cope, to see through the deception and learn how to fob them off when one needs to. It can even be fun, once in a while, to spin along a clever chap, and in the best Perry Mason tradition cross-examine him until his defences crumble. The worst appear to be the head-hustlers (in Rissani look out for head honcho in shades and shining white robes on a moped); these operate between the tourist and the real drivers, often aggressively, and prevent drivers from taking passengers without their commission or below their set price.

Question:What are the usual scams?

There are several major categories of scam, although inventive hustlers are always dreaming up new variations:

• Getting the tourist into a shop to buy

  The guide (even the official ones) who shows one around town will very likely have a number of agreements with certain merchants - he'll divert his charges into these shops, and the guide can get very persuasive if his cut and his reputation (perhaps even his testicles) are at stake, when some salesman has wasted five mint teas and twenty minutes on a hopeless case. Moroccans have three words for rugs (zerbiya for small, guetifa for large and hanbel for short-pile) - there are many more words for selling them. Your guide may well have diversified from carpets into clothes, antiques, spices, restaurants and leather goods.

  • "Please help me translate this letter to my friend in Canada"

    This is a real oldie, watch the letter vanish once amongst those rugs.

  • "Come friend, let us talk about our countries"

    The interest appears to be in your country's imports and his impending exports.

  • "We can swap your goods for souvenirs"

    Yes, they will, but it will usually be for a fraction of the cost. They're not two-bit peasants, they all have visa machines, even in the unlikeliest towns.

  • "My cousin has the only taxi service. He'll be leaving shortly, come have some mint tea with us"

    Once the mint tea is drunk and trinkets bought, one may be tempted to wonder where the cabbie is - don't.

  • "We call this our bus station. You can wait here until the taxi is ready"

    And we'd call this another carpet shop.

  • "A caravan has just arrived from the desert with many rare and wonderful goods."

    These days a convoy of 4x4s from the desert would be more credible, but the cheesy camel caravan is still being peddled by shopkeepers in the South.

  • "Today is the Berber market day; it's only once a month and the best time for bargains"

    Funnily, there seem to be 31 sets of these monthly markets, and they all look suspiciously like the back of a carpet shop.

• Closing the Sale

  • In comes the old wizended man, a starvation case, buy my carpets. That didn't work, so in comes Mr Greased Belly rippling with fat and muscle who'll sit menacingly near the door, there'll probably be the fast talking young guy, perhaps even a pretty girl. Hey, meet the whole family!
  • Generous portions of mint tea, candies, etc., followed by generous invitations to guilt trips for enjoying hospitality and not buying the $1000 rug.
  • "We have lots of people, buy 4 carpets, sell 3 and pay for their holiday". Yeah, yeah just send a $1 to each of the names on the bottom of this sheet...
  • "This carpet is ancient heirloom" OK, but check for jeeps in amongst those camels in the Berber women's embroidered autobiographies. And, anyhow, do you really want to be remembered as a plunderer of the country's cultural heritage?
  • The most common technique is to find something one likes. To the Maghrebi mind there's a simple equation: Rich Greedy Capitalist Westerner + Expressed Preference = Sale. They know that if one wants it one can pay for it somehow, MasterCards being issued at birth to all Europeans & Americans:

    Three carpets are rolled out - which do you like best of these? Not quite right, sir, then here are dozens of variations on these, I have plenty of time which I'll fill in with gratuitous mention of their utility for 'horizontal jogging' and lots of English slang - Okey Dokey. Another favourite technique is to unroll dozens of carpets, and then have you reject or accept each single one in Arabic; lots of people feel beholden by the number of carpets rolled out or feel uncomfortable saying no repeatedly.

    The salesman's foothold is made with the innocent question of preference, which subtly changes the basis of the negotiation from whether to buy a rug, to which rug one will buy - an inexorable chain begins the instant the victim admits that one rug is better than the other, or avers a preference for red over green; to the salesman this is prima facie intention to buy: guilt or sale being the only two outcomes.

  There are certain firms which the guidebooks recommend. However the golden rule for anything is to pay what one thinks it's worth, and bargain hard, don't assume that one has to go up to match every step he takes down. Usually the opening price will be five or even ten times the equivalent price in a fixed price shop. Stand firm, don't get first-world conscience stricken; they won't let themselves take a loss, moreover one may even acquire some respect! If you do wish to buy, please do not give your custom to the shops employing hustlers in the streets to badger you into visiting the shop - there will be other shops owned by sweeter people, offering better prices if you check them out yourself, and you won't be rewarding and encouraging the hustle.

  Other tips include: going to the shop in the morning before the guides get out of bed, going guide-less (and hence not having to pay a commission on the sale), not appearing too keen (insert the real object of desire amongst a string of inquries), and reverse their usual start with a ridiculously high price and haggle down to a surprise approach of start with ridiculously low price and bargain up.

• Robbery

  Avoid trips anywhere with strangers. A few blocks into the journey, the first chap becomes a posse, as he meets (oh so coincidentally) his friends. Exercise discretion with invitations back for lunch, and the ubiquitous couscous (always accompanied by the same ridiculous quacking gesture with the hand), or to leave the train/bus to visit someone's village. Be alert for suggestions not to bother to leave luggage at the hotel - bring it along, my friend. One net.traveller was driven by taxi in Tangier to an out of the way district and then cash was demanded to return to safety - he did but at a cost of $200. Also, be vigilant using ATMs and careful with shoulder bags - common robbery targets the world over.

• Drugs

  "You wanna get high?" This happens openly in Tangier, but offers of good stuff will also happen discreetly in Marrakech and Essaouria. The offer is kif (the locally grown marijuana). Paradoxically, the cultural escape drug (Marijuana) is illegal in Morocco, whereas the Islamically banned Western escape drug (alcohol) is brewed, bottled, and widely drunk - old colonial habits die hard.

  Police are much tougher on kif-smoking foreigners than locals. The Rif hills are alive with the smell of dope - this is the big (only) industry around those parts, and everyone knows it, and the police know that everyone knows it, and are liable to smile incredulously at the old "I thought they were tomato plants" line. For more on this read the Hip Guide's Kif in the Rif

  As with the average third-world country the dealers and law-enforcement officers have on-stage roles and off-stage deals; including the eco-scam where the dealer sells fresh-faced Westerner kif, pockets cash, then calls friend in uniform and claims reward (more cash pocketed) for tip off re certain fresh-faced Westerner and recently acquired herbal products, which can then be recycled for the next green tourist.

  "Can you take a package for a friend abroad".

  This is a classic, but just runs and runs. Difficult to believe how anyone can keep a straight face with this old line. Typically given just after some enormous service offered or rendered. The slightest inclination to risk/believe such an offer must be swiftly corrected - take along the Midnight Express soundtrack and play regularly on a Walkman.

• Children

  One of the most disturbing consequences of Western tourism in the less developed world is child begging - it is a sure indication of how tourist-busy a place is by the greeting of children - 'Bonjour' or 'Une Dirham!'. While in the Indian subcontinent, travellers will be faced with pleas from impoverished, and sometimes mutilated children, in Morocco you can hear this from well-fed, middle class children, as materialistic as their Western counterparts. The full greeting, and list of demands, is "Une Dirham, Un BonBon, Un Stylo, Les Lunettes". There appears to be no shame in panhandling, on the part of children or parents; attitudes to tourists as walking cash machines begin early.

  Don't be part of the corruption of childhood - reserve your dirham for the clearly needy and respond to the 'une dirham' with an inquisitive 'pourquoi' or 'are you a beggar?'. If you venture off the usual tourist trail, you will find Moroccan children (and usually their older kin), delightful, naturally friendly and demanding of no more than your name and a smile.

• General

  If someone says that there's no bus to wherever today, or the last taxi has gone - ask someone else to corroborate. When given directions don't be altogether surprised at ending up in a carpet shop or hotel rather than the intended destination. Possibly the greatest asset the hustler - professional or concerned amateur - possesses is the sheer brazen way in which he does it; often he will have the persistence and hurt expression of someone who is telling the truth and being disbelieved. It is the impeccable synchronisation of dissembling and dissimulation combined with tenacity which beats people into submission - through credulity, embarrassment or frustration.

Question:Is it safe for women?

One Woman's Perspective

1. Don't talk to people who approach you

   Most "nice" people don't approach strangers in the street. While it's quite natural to talk to your fellow passengers in a bus or train, or with the merchants or fellow customers, when you go shopping, people who approach you in the street out of the blue, are, more often than not, hustlers. In the case of women I would say that that will always be the case. Moroccan men would never approach a Moroccan woman they respected, if they approach you they are just showing their lack of respect (I actually tested this my last day in Morocco. A man kept asking me if I needed help, as I strolled through the market place in Tangier. I decided to confront him and ask him what made him think I would need any help, and I stated that he would never approach a Moroccan woman that way. He, of course, protested that that was not true. Fortunately for me, two Moroccan women were coming towards us at that point. I demanded that he offer his help to them. He, of course, refused, and explained that he respected them more than he respected me and thus would not approach them).

   The best thing to do is ignore them. Pretend they are not there, even when they insist that you are being rude, claim that they are human, or complain that you are in their country. If they were good people they wouldn't bother you. When they got too irksome, I used to tell them, in classical Arabic, as I don't know much Moroccan Arabic,

   "I do not speak with men of the street" La atakallem ma'a rrijalati shshari

   I would say that loud enough so that people around us would hear me, and realize that I was behaving properly (Moroccan women are unlikely to speak with men they meet in the street). It generally worked. Often they would say "oh, you are like Moroccan woman", and even when they insisted, it would not be for long. Do not, though, offer more explanations than this. Once a conversation is initiated, they will not allow it to stop, even if they have to follow you everywhere.

2. Walk fast

   That way you can avoid hearing most of the things people say to you, and what you don't know won't bother you. Many Moroccan men are under the impression that you do want their attention, the more things you do to show them that you will not speak with them, the more likely they'll get tired and try somebody else.

3. Do not brush up on your French or Moroccan Arabic

   Ok, Ok, both are extremely useful for getting along in the country, but insults, come-ons, etc. are much less effective when you cannot understand them. For all I know, half the men in the bazaar where asking me to f... them, but as they said so in French or Moroccan Arabic I could pretend they were not even speaking to me. After all, I have no idea what they said.

4. When you walk, try to follow women or couples closely

   Moroccan men are extreme cowards. If you are close to a woman (especially a middle age one) or a couple, they are less likely to say anything to you, as the woman in question could assume it was directed to her and confront them. So it pays to walk with them.

5. Don't be afraid to confront them

   As I said, they are cowards. Often times, I've had men follow me around the markets and the city, even waiting me out, when I stopped at a store. Still, when I decided to confront them, they usually run away. There is no point threatening them with the police, they are not afraid, they probably paid them off. But confronting them may startle them enough to make them decide to go elsewhere.

6. Don't believe anything they say

   Hustlers are great liars too. They will try to direct you the wrong way (ask an uninterested party), convince you that the medina is dangerous or complicated (certainly not much more than your average airport), and of course, they will always claim that they are not commission guides (they always seem to have their own shop). Even merchants will never admit that the man who took you to their store is a commission guide, but chances are that if someone took you, or followed you to a shop, he will get a commission on what you buy (and you will pay more than you should).

7. If you need help, ask women or older gentlemen

   Most hustlers are young and male.

8. Don't feel guilty

   Yes, Morocco is a poor country, but you don't need to feel it's up to you to enrich every person who comes across your path. I personally decided on an amount I would donate a day, and generally gave money to older men and women who were unable to work.

9. Dress conservatively

   You heard it a million times, but it works. Dressing conservatively does not mean dressing like your grandmother, basically it means to avoid tank-tops (or very tight tops), shorts and mini-skirts. I found that people treated me the same whether I wore long skirts or pants, so you shouldn't feel like you "have to wear a skirt." As you can't go to mosques in Morocco, it really doesn't make a difference (a warning, though, if you travel to (almost) any country where you can enter mosques, be advised that you must wear a skirt and a long-sleeve top). Wearing sunglasses also helps, as it makes it so much more difficult for hustlers to make eye-contact with you (and easier for you to pretend not to see them).

   If you want to dress as a Moroccan woman you have two choices. One, you can go for the "traditional" look and sport a djellaba. This is a good idea, especially if you are travelling alone, and you are not super fair (many Berbers are quite fair, and have blue eyes, so even if you are not dark-skin you can "pass"). You can buy a djellaba in the souks (remember to bargain) and just wear it over your normal clothes. You don't need to wear a scarf, tying long hair into a braid or ponytail is common enough. For a more "authentic" effect, you may want to wear shoes or sandals instead of sneakers. The whole point of wearing a djellaba is not to make people think that you are Moroccan, but to blend in enough so that hustlers don't come after you. I tried several times, and it gave a great sense of freedom to be able to walk through the medina without having people give me a second look or thought.

   If you don't feel comfortable in a djellaba, you may try wearing tights or tight pants and leather jackets (or big tops, if it's too hot for leather). That's the current most common look of "westernized" Moroccan women, and if you look like that, chances are people will think you are Moroccan.

10. Tie your hair

    This bears repeating. Wearing your hair in a sole braid or ponytail (or under a hat or scarf) will decrease sexual harassment considerably. I am not sure why, I guess Moroccan men find hair very sexy, but every time I wore my hair loose, I had many more men coming on to me.

11. General

    My general attitude is to not trust anybody, or rather, any man. Women in general (with the exception of the Berber women who try to sell you "silver" jewelry in Marrakesh) are wonderful, though you generally have to approach them, rather than wait for them to approach you. Of course, most people are not "out to get you", but it pays to be careful. If someone invites you over for dinner and you feel comfortable enough to go, make sure to note the way and bring a present (it's the polite thing to do, plus it saves you, just in case the meal was a ruse to sell you something, from being "guilted out" into buying something -it happens).

    Trust, as anywhere else, can be built over time. I met many Moroccan men with whom I had wonderful conversations and began to develop friendships. And by far most of the Moroccans I met, were very nice and friendly, and more generous than most other people I know. When I was Fez, I ran out of Moroccan money and all the banks in the medina (where I was staying) were closed. I asked the owner of the hotel where I was staying to let me pay the bill the next day, when I would hopefully be able to change. Not only did she allow me to pay the bill the next day, but after hearing my plight, she lent me 100dh so I could have enough money for food! I don't think that the people at the local Holiday Inn would be so inclined.

    Have a great time!

Thanks to Margarita Lacabe for this contribution.

Further reference:

• Beyond the Veil : Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society

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Glossary

Other References

soc.culture.berber

Other References

Images of Couscous

Other References

Music Review

Other References

maghreb.net

Other References

Moroccan Dictionary

Berber	Original inhabitants of Maghreb. Never quite conquered by the Romans, and neither by Arabs or Islam. Most Moroccans are Berber by birth, many of the festivals and more colourful aspects of Morocco are Berber in origin, and Berber clothing (much less restrictive for woman than orthodox Muslim), dialects, holy men (remnants of pre-Islamic cults), shrines, rugs and jewellry are common throughout the country. Individual Berber tribes have their own distinct identity, language and designs.
Camion	French for lorry. Provide the main, albeit erratic, transport infrastructure for the Atlas villages.
Couscous	Pre-cooked cracked grain and staple food. Frequently accompanied in an invitation to lunch by gratuitous quacking motion of the hand.
Djellaba	Traditional North African robe.
Erg	Sandy desert in general, and a dune in particular.
Gnaoua	Traditional and ritual music, accompanied by ecstatic dance, one of the traditional music brotherhoods.
Hammada	Stony desert. Most of the Moroccan Sahara is composed of such.
Hammam	Public steam baths
Jajouka	A village in the Jibala hills near Tangiers, site of an annual moussem believed by some to be a continuation of the ancient Roman fertility rites of Lupercalia, and location of the musical Ecstatic Brotherhood.
Jilala	Religious music, with Sufi origins, played on ceremonial and ritual occasions. Dancers, entering a trance, are able to slash themselves with daggers or touch glowing coals without pain or injury.
Kif	Cannabis, grown in the Rif mountains, to the east of Tangier.
Maghreb	Literally, the west. The Arab term for the north-west African states, the furthest western edge of the Arab world.
Medina	The old non-European part of a city. Equivalent to a 'cantonment' in an English colonial city.
Medersa	Old student buildings associated with large mosques. Usually built in the old Roman style around a pool-filled atrium with elaborately carved wood.
Moussem	Berber festival, typically in honour of a local holy man (although it's believed that one of the "local" holy men is the Jewish John the Baptist). Stamp of hooves, crack of rifles, auto-winds of a thousand cameras...
Rugbuyer	You!
Souk	Market for specific produce in the medina.
Tajine	Dome shaped terracotta cooking pot which lends its name to the classic North African dish. The ubquity of tajine cookery is responsible for the local song and traveller's saying 'tajine, tajine, tajine, tajine, tajine'
Ville Nouvelle	The separate French or Spanish town built near or adjacent to the medina.
Words Not Defined Here

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Copyright (c)1992-2001 Jeffrey R Burrows (morocco@rhizomatics.co.uk)