By Hassan Abou El Fadel

Morocco World News

Inezgane, Morocco, June 23, 2013

What “Key” do you think that is? It is one of the most important key words in the history of the US. It’s Francis Scott Key. So, who is the man? And what role did he play in the history of his country? Francis Scott Key is the writer of a poem commemorating the 1812 Baltimore battle at Fort McHenry. In 1931 the poem “Defence of Fort McHenry” was adopted by US congressional resolution as the official American national anthem with a new title “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The battle of Baltimore was against the British, Ironically Francis Scott Key’s poem was put to the music of a well-known British pub song called “The Anacreontic Song,” The first part of the American anthem goes as follows:

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight

O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket’s red glare, the bomb bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

This was written in 1814, two years later after the famous battle of Baltimore. In the US capital, Washington, DC there are monuments and institutions that bear the name Key and that plenty of foreign visitors fail to connect to this essential character and that essential phase in American history. Key bridge, over the Potomac River, is one such monument.

If I remember well, it makes it possible for you to come from Maryland State and get to Georgetown and vice versa. Georgetown or Town of George is named after George Washington, the first American president. The greater city of Washington, DC is equally named after him. An important institution that also bears the name Key is the Key Escuela. This institution is an important achievement of Spanish and American diplomacy, I was told. The director of the school is the daughter of an American diplomat who was appointed by the State department to the US embassy in Madrid during General Francisco Franco’s presidency.

In a nutshell, the Escuela in Washington, DC came as a fruit of Spanish-American relations. I visited the Escuela with Moroccan colleagues in 2005 and was quite impressed by the way it was managed. There can be plenty of other monuments all through the US bearing the name of Key. What I essentially aimed to highlight is that keys serve either to open or lock, this one Key can open an important chapter of American history to people who may not have heard or read about it.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

June 25, 2013 (AFP)

Vines stretch to the horizon under the hot summer sun in a vineyard near Casablanca, one of the oldest in Morocco, where despite the pressures from a conservative Muslim society, wine production -- and consumption -- is flourishing.

"In Morocco we are undeniably in a land of vines," says wine specialist Stephane Mariot.

"Here there is a microclimate which favours the production of 'warm wines', even though we aren't far from the ocean," adds the manager of Oulad Thaleb, a 2,000-hectare vineyard in Benslimane, 30 kilometres (18 miles) northeast of Casablanca, which he has run for five years.

The social climate in the North African county is less propitious, however, with the election of the Islamist Party of Justice and Development in 2011, and the fact that Moroccan law prohibits the sale of alcohol to Muslims, who make up 98 percent of the population.

In practice though alcohol is tolerated and well-stocked supermarkets do a brisk trade in the main cities where there is a growing appetite for decent wine.

According to some estimates, 85 percent of domestic production is drunk locally, while around half of total output is considered good quality.

"Morocco today produces some good wine, mostly for the domestic market, but a part of it for export, particularly to France," says Mariot.

Annual output currently stands at about 400,000 hectolitres, or more than 40 million bottles of wine, industry sources say, making the former French protectorate the second biggest producer in the Arab world.

By comparison, neighbouring Algeria, whose vineyards were cultivated for a much longer period during French colonial rule, produces 500,000 hectolitres on average, and Lebanon, with its ancient viticulture dating to the pre-Roman era, fills about six million bottles annually.

Some of Morocco's wine regions -- such as Boulaouane, Benslimane, Berkane and Guerrouane -- are gaining notoriety.

Already it has one Appellation d'Origine Controlee -- controlled designation of origin, or officially recognised region -- named "Les Coteaux de l'Atlas", and 14 areas with guaranteed designation of origin status, most of them concentrated around Meknes, as well as Casablanca and Essaouira.

And in March last year, an association of Moroccan sommeliers was set up in Marrakesh bringing together 20 wine experts.

In the central Meknes region, nestled between the Rif Mountains and the Middle Atlas, there is evidence that wine production dates back some 2,500 years.

But the industry was transformed during the time of the protectorate (1912-1956), when the kingdom served as a haven for migrating French winemakers after the phylloxera pest decimated Europe's vineyards around the turn of the 20th century.

As in Algeria and Tunisia, the French planted vineyards extensively, with Morocco's annual production exceeding three million hectolitres in the 1950s.

The main grape varieties used to produce the country's red wines are those commonly found around the Mediterranean, such as Grenache, Syrah, Cabernet-Sauvignon and Merlot.

Mariot, the manager of Oulad Thaleb, boasts that the domain, which he says has the oldest wine cellar in use in the kingdom, built by a Belgian firm in 1923, produces one of Morocco's "most popular wines".

Standing by a barrel, he casts a proud eye on the vintage, describing it as a "warm and virile wine".

Abderrahim Zahid, a businessman and self-styled "lover of fine Moroccan wines" who sells them abroad, says the country now produces "a mature wine which we can be proud of".

Morocco's wine industry now employs up to 20,000 people, according to unofficial figures, and generated about 130 million euros ($170 million) in 2011.

But the remarkable progress made by the sector in recent years has taken place within a sensitive social environment.

While alcohol production is permitted by state law, and supermarkets and bars enforce no special restrictions on Muslim customers, officially the sale and gift of alcoholic drinks to Muslims is illegal. They are unavailable during Islamic festivals, including throughout the holy month of Ramadan.

Separately, the Islamist-led government decided last year to raise taxes on alcoholic drinks from 450 dirhams (40 euros, $53) per hectolitre to more than 500 dirhams.

So far this has not noticeably deterred consumption among Morocco's population of 35 million, although economic realities certainly influence local drinking habits.

The wine favoured by Moroccans is a cheap red called Moghrabi, which comes in plastic bottles and costs 30 dirhams (less than three euros) a litre.

By Mouhcine Abdechchafi

Morocco World News

Tinghir, Morocco, June 27, 2013

It is true that every single geographical area in Morocco is unique when it comes to celebrating the wedding ceremony. All over the regions of the country, the wedding ceremony is celebrated in a manner that is altogether distinct as each region has its own ways of doing so. Within the region of the southeast of Morocco, this ceremony is celebrated in a completely different way from other regions. However, Tinghir, which makes part of the southeastern region of Morocco, celebrates the wedding ceremony in a different way from other areas of the same region.

In Tinghir the wedding ceremony used to be celebrated for eight consecutive days. But, nowadays the number of almost any wedding party is reduced to three days. Just some fifteen years ago, as I still remember though still younger by then, the wedding ceremony would last for eight days to the extent that there were guests from other tribes that were relatively far from Tinghir. Yet, because of economic problems and because people no longer like to spend much time on such things, they now celebrat it in just three  days.

Engagement ceremony

In the past, when a man was ready to get married his parents usually used to look for a suitable girl for him. Nowadays, things have positively changed as men can at last opt for the girl they wish instead of another one being imposed on them by their parents.

When the man eventually finds the girl he wants to pass the rest of his life with, he has got just to inform his parents to accompany him to see if she and her family agree. In that day, the man and his parents pay a visit to the girl’s family bringing with them some presents in terms of sticks of sugar and henna. After an introductory conversation between the two families, the man’s parents try to be straightforward. If the girl refuses, the man and his parents just leave her house.

 Though the girl refuses, the man and his parents, as a tradition, do not take back the gifts they had brought as a sign that nothing had changed.

If the girl accepts to be engaged to that man, her parents ask her to prepare a cup of tea and bring it to the guests so that they can manage to have a swift, last glance at her face and complexion.

When the two parties reach an agreement, they directly go to the notary’s to make things legal so the newlyweds can ask each other out whenever they please even before marriage.

Wedding ceremony

In the first day of the wedding which is termed “As’hmi,” and earlier in the morning the butcher comes to slaughter a cow or a bull. In the first day, there should be no sign that there is a wedding ceremony in the tribe till the evening when only the neighbors and relatives of the family are invited to dinner.

When guests arrive, after a brief recitation of the holly Quran, they assign a certain person among them to take charge of preparing tea for them. Every now and then during that night, guests are served some small pieces of bread and some barbecues made of the cow or the bull’s liver mixed with some grease.

This type of barbecues is referred to as “Toutliwin.” Having finished with those barbecues, guests finally would be served the main dish of that day which is Couscous with some edible innards of the cow or bull.

When the guests are finished with their meal, they directly go outdoors to play some “Ahidous” (Amazigh music).” In the beginning, they start playing alone and sing a certain song through which they ask the mother of the bride or the groom to call upon some women and girls to come and play with them. The men and women divide into two relatively big lines: a line comprised of women and another of men. Then, they begin to sing songs called “Izlan.”

In the second day of the wedding which is called “Tikfaf” meaning “presents,” inhabitants of the tribe are invited to lunch. As a tradition, preachers are served first as they come to lunch at an early time: between 9:30 and 11 O’clock. They first recite as much Quran as they can manage and this small recitation is called “S’lekt.”

When the preachers are finished with their meal, other men of the tribe come in crowds to lunch in their turn. Before having the main dish, men as usual assign somebody to prepare tea for them. Habitually, the assigned person refuses in the very beginning as sort of modesty but eventually gives in.

In the same day, women also come to lunch at 3:00 O’clock, that is, after men have left. Before having lunch and after drinking some cups of tea, women indulge in playing “Ahidous” but this time without men. Usually, some women volunteer to dance before others when they are asked by either other women or by the bride or groom’s mother. Finally, after playing “Ahidous”, they eat their lunch and leave.

In the night of the same day, men and women come back to have dinner. This time they have their dinner at the same time but not in the same room because the inhabitants of this area are conservatives. But, prior to having dinner at a time in the evening, cars come in successions bringing presents in terms of cases of flour, boxes containing sticks of sugar, rams, blankets, and even music bands, etc. At that time, horns of the cars permeates the entire tribe. Finally, all the guests get in and have dinner before they go outside and play “Ahidous” once again with women. The “Ahidous” often lasts till a late in the night.

In the third and last day of the wedding which is called “Tanaka”, only relatives and guests from the neighboring tribes are invited to lunch and dinner. The traditions that precede and follow each meal are all the time the same.

In the night of that last day, some few members of the groom’s family use their cars to bring the bride to her house. When that group of people, who are called “Issnayen” are near the house of the bride, they start tooting as sign for them to get prepared to bid farewell to their daughter. When the groom’s family gets to the bride’s house, they would be warmly received by her family members and all the other members of her tribe as young boys start to yell and women start to ululate.

The newlyweds’ family and tribe members combine together and play “Ahidous” waiting for the bride and groom to have some photos with their relatives. Then, as many cars picking up the bride’s family and tribe members follow the car picking up the bride in a succession and start launching their cars’ horns on their way till they get to the groom’s house. They start playing “Ahidous” once again while some volunteers from the groom and bride’s families or close friends unload some stuff the bride is often entailed to bring to her new house like blankets, beds, mattresses, carpets, big mirrors, quilts, etc.

When the bed is ready, the bride and groom get into their room and have some privacy. At that moment which is termed “Guit N’tmghra” the groom is required to rid his bride of her virginity forever. Finally, celebrations continue to a late time in the night and some cases till the down.

By Youssef Sourgo

Morocco World News

Casablanca, July 1, 2013

What could be the point in common between Mariah Carey, Hilary Clinton, Haifaa Wahbi, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Haddad and Jennifer Lopez? The answer is that all of these international female celebrities were enchanted by the majestic beauty of the Moroccan attire, the Kaftan.

Alongside all the aforementioned names, innumerous female celebrities from all corners of the world have found a perfect match to their sublimity in the Moroccan Kaftan. Thanks to faithful, taste-refined Moroccan women abroad, who have been ambassadors of the Moroccan elaborate apparel, Kaftan’s magic has found its path to women’s hearts worldwide.

HH Princess Lala Salma has also had an unquestionable share in rendering Kaftan every woman’s aspiration abroad. Princess Lala Salma, topping the list of Moroccan female ambassadors of Kaftan, has always elegantly stood out of the crowd, dressed in refined Kaftan designs on a myriad of important ceremonies abroad, ranging from the crowning of a royal figure to an international conference on women’s rights.

It is no coincidence that the traditional Moroccan Kaftan continues to appeal to leading female figures in the world, even to those who have a sophisticated sense of fashion and modernity. The intricate attire, with its dazzling colors, composite designs and refined tissues easily espoused modern trends of fashion, thus astounding both fans of modernity and tradition in clothing.

 Who could believe that Beyonce, Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez, American’s international diva singers, who have for so long been engrossed in Western trends of fashion, would wind up falling in love with a traditional attire from the other sphere of the earth?

Who could believe that the most beautiful representative stars of the Arab world, the likes of Asala Nasri, Cherine, Ahlam and Diana Hadad would be attracted to the Moroccan attire while their cultures have their own distinctive traditional attires?

Credit has to be given ultimately to the tremendous efforts put into practice by Moroccan traditional designers. Kaftan’s current universal appeal will always be indebted to the professionalism and dedication of thousands of professional, traditional Moroccan designers. Kaftan’s early life kicked off in their romantic, humble shops, where handmade divinities were created.

Credit has to be given, also, to all Moroccan women who have favored Kaftan over the myriad of fashion trades sweeping the world every second. Their persistence to keep the Kaftan an attire worn on most significant ceremonies, such marriages, festives and celebrations has kept the Kaftan in the spotlight.

On the Eve of Ramadan, I can feel some anticipation in the air. The streets seem to be a little bit more crowded and the cafes a bit busier than usual. It is difficult to picture what tomorrow will be like, when these chattering, smoking men with their tea will be absent.

I have noticed the anticipation of Ramadan growing for the past week or so. Mostly I noticed this during my commute to and from work when I pass by the mosque. There seem to be more and more people going in to pray, and last Friday I noticed many more men spilling outside the mosque and spreading their rugs on the ground than usual.

As much as fasting all day, and especially foregoing water on this heat sounds less than pleasant to me, it seems that most Moroccans here are looking forward to Ramadan with anticipation and excitement.

Most people here seem to report that they are looking forward to Ramadan as a way to recommit themselves to God and also as an opportunity to purify their souls. They also say that Ramadan is a special time, a holy month and that they enjoy the fact that for one month of the year, spiritual fulfillment is collectively prioritized above all else. Some people have said that they look forward to Ramadan as an opportunity for a transformation of not only their soul, but also their bodies as they experience the physical and spiritual effects of the fast.

Many people are expressing that fasting, especially during the warmer seasons is a difficult task, but that this makes it all the more worthwhile, because it will make them stronger. They will be better able to discipline themselves, and fulfill their religious obligations. Many have said that the practice of fasting makes them more patient, self-controlled and pious. Many have also said to me that Ramadan is an exercise in showing solidarity with those who are less fortunate- a way to feel what poor people feel, so that they may become more compassionate people.

There are also those that have said they are looking forward to Ramadan from less of a religious perspective and are more excited about a shorter work day, and the delicious food that will be served at sunset. I have been told by many people that I should expect to gain weight during Ramadan.

Yet there are also those who have expressed their disappointment with this view. Some have said that instead of consuming less, and focusing on spiritual growth, many people actually consume more during Ramadan, and that some of the intended purpose of the holy month has been lost.

Nevertheless, it seems that overall, this Ramadan is something that most Moroccans are looking forward to with optimism. I commend all of their efforts to fasting, especially as the temperature rises and the days will be long. It will certainly be a challenge, and one that I’m sure will test yet enhance their patience and commitment to their faith.

Erin MacDonald, is a Canadian MA candidate.  She grew up in Halifax Nova Scotia where she earned an Honours degree in Religious Studies from St. Mary’s University. She is now earning an MA in Dispute Resolution from the University of Victoria, British Columbia. She is currently fulfilling the internship requirement of her MA degree, working at La Voix de la Femme Amazighe in Rabat Morocco.

By Rachid Khouya

Morocco World News

Smara, Morocco, July 10, 2013

When  we talk about Ramadan, the first thing that comes to the minds of non-Muslims is that it is a month where Muslims do not eat, drink, or sleep with their wives from sunrise to sunset. This is not right.

Ramadan is a month where our lives are well organized. Everything is done according to a schedule. We pray, eat, wake up and work at the same time every day. The night is for eating, worshipping and sleeping, and the day is for working, worshiping and fasting.

Ramadan is a month where we do not only fast, but we eat as well. It is the only month where special tables are prepared for thirty days, the month where all kinds of food and drinks are served and the month where women show their skills and artistic cooking talents.

Muslims are asked to eat and  fast. Those who are healthy have to fast, but not for the sake of fasting, being hungry or starving. God does not want to make us  suffer as some people make it sound. This is not the objective behind Ramadan.

When Muslims fast, it is an opportunity to control their whims and instinctive  desires. This is a chance where we are put to a real test to see to what extent we can enslave the calls of desires and whims, and to what extent we can control ourselves.

It is hard for someone feeling hungry to stand in a kitchen full of food  and control his hands without daring  to take some of the sweets and cakes and put them in his/her mouth.

It is even harder for a person being alone at his home to open his fridge and find all kinds of drinks and fruits, cold water and cold juices and alcohol, being both hungry and tirsty, and still  challenges his nature and his addiction and says no to drinking and no to eating.

Another objective behind Ramadan is to let those who eat for a whole year and those who have never felt what it means to be hungry or thirsty,  to discover the sufferings and the pain of the poor people who die of starvation, poverty and drought.

This is the month where we sympathize with those who do not have, we share with them, we feed them, we invite them, we help and support them, and we understand their social status and their pain.

On the other hand, as God asked healthy humans to fast, he ordered those who are unhealthy and those who cannot  fast to eat. Thus Ramadan is a month where the sick people, the pregant women, the small, the old, and the travelers are given a divine permission to eat.

God ordered us to execute his orders as well as to  perform his permissions. It is a sin to fast when you are given an order to eat. So, if you are travelling for more than eighty six kilometers, if you are sick, pregnant, or old, then you must eat your daily dishes as you usually to do. This is a permission not from the doctor or the nurse, it is a permission from your creator.

This is why  true believers feel so happy to eat as they are surrendering to God's orders. They eat because God wants them to eat. But they should feed a poor person every day or give the price of a dish for those who do not have it. This is to strengthen the social ties between the poor and the rich, the ill , and the healthy.

Frankly, this is the best month of the year where we eat, fast, practice sports, worship God, share with our neighbors, spend more time with the family, visit our friends and  relatives, forgive each other, reflect on our lives, our past, present and future and we think about our purpose and mission in life.

Only in Ramadan, do we dare to stop our bad habits and  give up our addiction. It is the best time to stop smoking, and drinking. In Ramadan, a lot of people give up this bad and unhealthy habits in the Muslim world. People defy themselves and stop drinking and smoking. Something they can only do in Ramadan.

Normally as humans, we should live all the other months of the year the way we live in Ramadan. A month where we wash our hearts, minds and bodies from the filth of sins and the darkness of evil, corruption, greed, selfishness and anger. A month where we are linked to each other and to our creator, and a  month where we wear white and do our best to cleanse our hearts from sins and wrongdoings.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Morocco World News

New York, July 10, 2013

Steeped in history and culture, it is little wonder that Morocco is known as the 'festival capital of Africa'. Thousands of tourists make the annual pilgrimage to the country to join the locals in experiencing its eclectic music scene, soak in the vibrancy of its artistic heritage, and taste the zest of its world-famous cuisine.

Morocco hosts hundreds of festivals big and small right through from spring until winter. These festivals attract artists, musicians, and performers from all over the globe.

To plan the best time to travel to Morocco, it's important to check out some of the most important festival dates before you go:

1. Gnaoua World Music Festival

Location: Essaouira

Dates: Late June

Gnaoua or Gnawa is an ancient, mystical form of music original to Morocco. The Gnaoua World Music festival provides a platform for artists from various music genres to interact and perform with these famed Gnaoua musicians. In its long, rich history, the festival has hosted countless famous musicians, including The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. The festival's location - the historic city of Essaouira (also called 'Mogadore) - is sure to delight adventurous tourists as well.

Location: Fez

Dates: June 7-15

Despite housing one million people, Fes bears the look of a settlement from the Middle Ages. The city also has the distinction of housing the World Sacred Music festival. One of the most culturally significant festivals in the world, the Fes festival has even been recognised by the United Nations as a catalyst for better dialogue between nations. The festival invites musicians from a wide range of cultures - visitors can sample folk Egyptian musicians alongside Indian sitar maestros and contemporary Jazz pianists.

3. Boulevard of Young Musicians Festival

Location: Casablanca

Dates: Early June

Casablanca, the romantic city that gave its name to the Humphrey Bogart movie, is home to Morocco's premier contemporary music festival. Instead of Japanese fusion and classical Indian music, visitors to the festival will be greeted with the finest flavours of Morocco's rap, rock, metal and trance scene. It's decidedly different from the other festivals on the list, and the fact that it is in Casablanca makes it all the more attractive, since this is a city that transformed the meaning of music to Moroccans during the 1990s, when musicians came together to fuse hip-hop, rock, electronica and fusion, pushing the boundaries of the mainstream further than ever before.

4. Tanjazz Festival

Location: Tangier

Dates: Mid September

Tangier has been home to the ancient Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, Berbers, Portuguese and French through a long and chequered history. Today, tourists throng to Tangier to witness the famous Tanjazz festival - the premier jazz festival in North Africa. With its eclectic mix of contemporary and classical musicians, bohemian energy and inclusive culture, the festival is trying to re-establish Tangier as a global cultural centre.

Morocco is home to many more festivals such as the Marrakesh Festival of Modern Art, the Timitar Festival, and the Festival of Amazigh Film. These events are a great way to experience Moroccan culture whilst also exploring some of the country's most historic cities.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

By Rachid Khouya

Morocco World News

Smara, Morocco, July 13, 2013

A lot of people prefer to leave the cities and spend their Ramadan in the Sahara, far from the noise of cars and the slavery of technology and modern life. They take their children to the heart of the desert so as to spend this holy month in the open horizons of Mother Nature, far from all aspect of modernity, civilization and mass media. In the desert, they spend their days with their ship, goats and camels under the shadow of trees or inside their tents worshiping God, reading the Qoran, singing spiritual and religious songs, composing poems and thinking about life and creation. They travel inside their collective memory remembering what they were and how they used to live with their grandfathers and grandmothers in those beautiful years that are gone with the wind of forgetfulness. The Sahara gives people the sense of being free from all images of modern technological slavery and pollution of the mind, the spirit and the heart. They are far from the news of killings, violence and deaths brought by the mass media, bad movies, and shows that are produced and presented during Ramadan on both national and international channels with the only purpose of disturbing and corrupting our psyches. Inside the desert, we renew the natural relations with Mother Nature. We use our senses, feelings and hearts. Our eyes watch and see the different components of nature. We spend the mornings and afternoons with our herds of animals and we watch them as they look for food and water. We follow them with our eyes as they graze in pastures. This allows us to feel the greatness of the creator who gave us minds and reason. Consequently, we thank God for creating us as humans instead of animals. By night, we light fires to see what the sun light hides. Darkness of the desert is itself another light that unveils a different type of beauty and other aspects of the desert's wonders and secrets. Most of the time, people spend the nights with families, singing songs of their ancestors and listening to the tales, stories and histories of their grandparents. People get connected with their past as they reflect and think about the lives our forefathers, the tribes and the knights who used to dwell in the middle of the desert's tents, which is not only an empty void, but a magical world full of unseen beauty and untested sweetness and greatness. When people spend their nights on the dunes, they watch the world by the light of the moon and the stars. The stars guide their paths and their lives and guide the way of the travelers through the night. The Sahraoui people always wait impatiently for the sunset to enjoy the beautiful scene of the stars as they wake up, while the sun makes its way to bed and to sleep. The desert is special because we are able to listen to the beautiful songs and sounds of the wind and the voices of animals. We listen to the beatings of our hearts and to the beatings of the world. People eat and drink only natural food and drinks, like the milk of the camel. They prepare tea at night around the fire and on the coal, using everything the desert has to offer. The time people spend in the Sahara, is like the time students spend at school. They take classes of history, literature and anthropology, where parents pass the lessons they learned from nature and from the desert to their children. The school of the desert does not only produce learners who have heads filled and stored with useless ideas and lessons, the Sahara sharpens the life skills of the people and put them in real situations where they must use their intelligence to solve the problems they face. The Sahara teaches people to rely on themselves, to find solutions to whatever obstacle and problem they face and to use their entire being to find their way and to live. The men and women of the desert do not believe in the impossible. They bear with patience the lack of food, water, means of transportation, and medicine, and they rely on what the womb of nature gives them. This makes them live life for the pure joy of being alive. Their motto is, 'to be or to be'. They do not believe in 'not to be '. This is the kind of citizens we need, people who love their natural and cultural contexts, and people who are self-reliant, self-made and self-dependent. Ramadan is the month where we should be spiritual beings, doing the mission we are created for on this earth: to worship God and to understand that all aspects of material life are nothing, temporary and passing. We are born naked and we will die naked. When we die, we certainly will leave everything behind. Thus it is better to share what we have with those who do not have and to do good deeds as long as we are still alive. Living in the desert is like a journey inside the womb of spirituality. People leave behind all their possessions, their technological tools and beautiful houses and clothes. They carry only their tents and their daily food and they live like birds with no stores and no bank accounts. They rely on God to guide them, to feed them and to water them. The desert is a hospital that cures our mental psychological illnesses, helps us to get rid of depression, tension and noise of modern life and it frees from the shackles of machines and technology. Living in the island of the sand and the dunes encourages the values of self-reliance, group work, family connection, and revives our collective memories and our natural intelligences far from selfishness, egoism, greed and the pollution of all what is human and natural. It is a real return to the origins and to Mother Nature.

By Youssef Sourgo

Morocco World News

Casablanca, July 18, 2013

Apart from the Majestic Moroccan Kaftan, Moroccan women are also typically known for wearing the Djellaba. Though this traditional attire is also worn in other countries in the Maghreb and in some countries along the Mediterranean, the Moroccan Djellaba is the most famous internationally, for its faithfulness to its traditional features and its distinctive espousal of modernity.

Dejellaba’s appellation is claimed to come from the word jilb?b, the name given to women’s religious dress in Islam. Jilbab is found in Qu’ran and refers mainly to traditionally long garments worn by Muslim women to cover the features of their beauty. It is sometimes used interchangeably to refer to Hijab, as long as it fulfills the Quranic demands for Muslism women’s religious screening.

Since there are no visual representations of the 7-century’s Jilbab, it is difficult to claim that contemporary Jilbab (or Moroccan traditional Djellaba) are similar to it. However, some anthropologist claim that today’s Jilbab dates back to the 19th century, since pictures of it show commonalities between the one worn at that time and the one worn today by Muslim women.

Moroccan Djellaba, akin to most other forms of Djellabas worn elsewhere, is traditionally a long-hooded, baggy robe with sleeves worn by women and young girls almost ubiquitously. It is usually made of cotton or wool, and traditionally features a baggy hood called “Kob.”

While today Moroccan women are the ones who predominantly wear this attire, Moroccan men are claimed to be the first to wear the Dejallaba, which was later on adopted by women during the time of independence (1956). Since that time, Moroccan women’s Djellaba has developed to gain more sophistication and multifariousness than men’s.

Modern Moroccan Djellaba is emphatically different from 20 century Dejellaba. The way it is now designed and worn is also clearly distinct. While most Moroccan women used to wear the scarf as an indispensable companion of the Djellaba in the past, Djellaba is worn today without the scarf. The scarf, to shake dust off misconceptions, is not to be always associated with religion, since not all women who wear scarfs forcibly do it out of religious adherence.

Unlike Kaftan and Takchita, Moroccan Djellaba is worn almost everywhere: at home, in the street, in workplaces, in the mosque, and so on. Traditional Djellaba is seldom worn during ceremonies, such as weddings for instance. Unless its sophistication and design match those of the Moroccan Kaftan, Dejallaba remains a day-to-day garment rather than an attire of special occasions.

Moroccan Djellaba is also no longer that simple traditional dress with very consistent and conservative design features. While the traditional Dejellaba of the 1960s remains intact and conserves its significance among Moroccan women, modern Djellaba has become so famous that it has become almost difficult to recognize one by a person not familiar with the mutations it has undergone.

Just like Moroccan Kaftan, Moroccan Jellaba has gain sophistication and is gradually finding its way to the most refined fashion shows and exhibitions. The Moroccan Djellaba today is bondless. You can find it in infinities of colors and designs. You may also sometimes mistake it for another sort of garment, as it has been borrowing some distinctive features from international attires, to grant it more heterogeneity.

You may notice that some Moroccan Dejallabas, particularly worn by younger women, do not feature hoods, which were some of the most recognizable features of the Dejallaba. This makes it harder for foreigners, for example, to indentify the garment. You may also notice that sleeves of some Djellabas are shorter. They almost have the length of those of T-shirts. Some Djellabas are also designed shorter, tighter and full of shapes and portraits.

The Moroccan Djellaba, like the Kaftan, has espoused the air of modernity to answer the demands of new generation of women, with new notions of beauty and elegance. Today’s Moroccan Djellaba is neither traditional nor modern—it’s both! It remains faithhtful to some of the defining features of the traditional Djellaba, yet injects a discernible contemporariness in it, in terms of colors, deigns and tissues.

With such conflation of the traditional and the contemporary now characterizing Moroccan Djellaba, the attire is increasingly sweeping the world and reaching the hearts of many women worldwide. Akin to its fellow Moroccan attire, the Kaftan, the Moroccan Djellaba now aspires to universality and international light. Hence, Moroccan contemporary fashion designers are now endeavoring to share the distinctiveness of this dress with the world, by adapting it to all tastes and preferences.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Mohamed El Hassan Abou El Fadel

Morocco World News

Inezgane, Morocco, July 23, 2013

American Slang (Part 1)

I am getting back to you again in “American Slang II” to shed more light on slang words and expressions you may come across.

This time round, I will start with “Que pasa?” as it may be a good need creation device. This is as you may guess right is of Spanish origin and simply means “What is going on?” or “What is happening?”.

Now at the gitgo of this piece of writing, you may find the word a bit strange. Definitely, it is yet another slang word of black origin and simply means the beginning. “From the gitgo, I told that won’t work.” Now if someone is too much of a loud mouth you may hear somebody telling him: “Now, give it a rest!” or “Buckle it!” The it there refers to the mouth so the counterpart to these two expressions would be “Keep quiet!”.

You may equally encounter some boring or unpleasant person and you may have to “give him the gate” How is that? Well, I suppose you know the expression “to give someone the cold shoulder.” That is to ignore someone but when it comes to “giving someone the gate” the meaning would be to rid yourself of him altogether. You may also wish to end a long discussion about something.

The following exclamation is then used “Period!” meaning that’s it, no more discussion about that whatever that may happen to be. The gitgo word is of black origin as I have mentioned earlier, another word of the same origin is “Calendar” as in “Another calendar and we’ll get our money” So what’s your guess concerning calendar? Yes, it means a month your guess is right!

Some slang words or expressions were coined by computer freaks. Glitch is one such word. There is a glitch in my computer program. The word is used to refer to a technical problem, defect or bug. Glitz is yet another word to get to know it is related to the flashiness and glamour as in, “It’s a lot of glitz but little substance!”

Now if you happen to have a lot of smarts everything you do is going to be a piece of cake. I think plenty of people (Non-American people) would be familiar with the word smarts as it is used a lot. The word means intelligence and if you are particularly intelligent a lot of things you do would seem like a piece of cake: very easy.

Before I conclude, I wish yet to introduce another word but this time from California. It is written as a single word but it can be conceived as a phrase. Seeyabye! As in “Okay, I gotta go now, seeyabye!” This is quite an easy guess, I think. Upon this, I wish to call it stop and tell all of you: “Seeyabye!”

By Mohamed Chtatou

Morocco World News

Rabat, July 24, 2013

The bubble

One morning in early July, as I was taking my daily leisurely stroll on the famous Promenade des Anglais, a verbal fight between two beautiful and scantily dressed girls caught my attention. Apparently, they were fighting over a handsome guy standing at a distance, surely blowing his ego out of imaginable proportion. As I stopped to watch the amusing exchange unfold, I heard the following dialogue:

- Girl 1:

Ne t’approches pas de moi pétasse, si tu envahis mon espace je te fous une baffe.

- Girl 2 :

Toi, chose merdique, tu as envahi mon intimité, tu veux me prendre mon copain, je te foutrais mon coup de poing sur ta gueule de merde, quand ça me chante.

Girl 2 was gesturing close to the face of Girl 1, invading her private space in a way that is unacceptable in the Western World.

In the West, every individual has his own private space, referred to as the “bubble”. It is very rude to enter someone’s bubble under any circumstance. In this part of the world, privacy is very important, as important and vital as the air one needs to live, if not more.

When I was a student in New York in the 80s, a friend of mine became incensed during a subway ride together when I attempted to read the paper in a crowded space, almost throwing the pages open on commuters’ faces. Later, she explained to me that even in crowded spaces you have to respect the “bubble”, otherwise people may feel uncomfortable. She taught me how to read my paper without being disrespectful to the many honorable “bubbles” around, and I am ever grateful to her.

In America, privacy is so important that it is inscribed in gold in the constitution: the privacy of the home, the privacy of correspondence, and the privacy of life. There have been recent allegations against the National Security Agency (NSA) eavesdropping on people and their conversations. These allegations reduce the concept of the “bubble” to a mere joke. Recently, Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former CIA employee, prided himself for being the Guardian's source for the series of leaks on the NSA and cyber-surveillance.

This scandal is revealing to the world that the NSA has violated the secrecy and the privacy of cyber exchanges and information through an official program called “PRISM”, of the American Big Brother. In this regard, the Guardian questions, “What is the fundamental issue here?”

“For many observers the key question is the exposure of a troubling imbalance between security and privacy, against a background of rapid technological change that now permits clandestine surveillance on a massive and Orwellian scale. Legal safeguards and political oversight appear to be lagging behind. The Guardian revelations have underlined the sheer power of electronic snooping in the internet era and have injected new urgency into the old debate about how far a government can legitimately go in spying on its own people on the grounds that it is trying to protect them.”

This scandal has made people reevaluate how much privacy they really have, suggesting that the important privacy the west holds so dear is a mere chimera. The government eavesdrops on its citizens and undoubtedly knows every detail of their private life and all their secret phantasms. It seems that in the name of national security, the American government will transgress every constitutional right of its citizens, with almost no collective reaction on their part.

On learning that the American government can order the Internet companies to provide private information and correspondences of all users on the ground of national security, one wonders if major cyber companies offer free email services as a trap to collect information on the world at large. The Guardian informs us that the American government has asked the Internet companies to turn in information:

Internal NSA documents claim the top secret data-mining program gives the US government access to a vast quantity of emails, chat logs and other data directly from the servers of nine internet companies. These include Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and Apple. The companies mentioned have all denied knowledge of or participation in the program.

Minding personal business

That morning on arriving back to the hotel, I began to read the latest news on Morocco World News and came across the excellent article of Erin Geneva entitled: “Minding your own business: a foreign impression of Moroccan society”. From her writing, I gathered that the warmth of Moroccan culture fascinates her and she approves of its communal overtones and inclinations, which means that she may give up her “bubble” while being in the company of Moroccans.

In the 80s, when I was teaching Peace Corps Trainees courses on Moroccan culture and cross-culture communication, they would often ask me the Darija or even Fus7a word for “privacy”. Because the concept itself is almost unknown to Moroccans, I would wrestle my brains to come up with a long tortuous phrase of my own, instead of single word.

The truth of the matter is that Moroccans care less for privacy, because all of their living is communal. Children live with their parents as long as they wish, even when they grow older. Grandparents and widowed aunts live in the family house and are taken care of until their death. Food is scooped with bread from the same plate and eaten in communion with fingers, without using forks and knives because people believe that it is a gift of God, and using an intermediary between the food and the mouth is an insult to this blessing.

Moroccans sit together, eat together, sleep in the same room, and wash together in the bathhouse, 7ammam. In the traditional family construct, there is no such thing as “privacy”. If you want to be alone you must either be deranged, possessed by spirits, jnoun, or mischievous. The popular adage has it that only Satan is inclined to act alone, ma kaykhrej men jma3a ghir chitan, and this is corroborated by the excellent Edvard Alexander Westermarck (20 November 1862 – 3 September 1939). Westermarck is a Finnish philosopher and sociologist who conducted very serious work on Moroccan society and published an opus in two volumes in 1926 entitled, “Ritual and Belief in Morocco”, as well as “Wit and Wisdom in Morocco” in 1930.

Moroccans always huddle together, and they are a close knit society as a result of three main reasons:

1- Patriarchal social order:

The tribal past, still so strong, symbolized by the patriarchal system. The extended family lived under the same roof and shared space, food and destiny;

2- The respect of seniority:

The older the person gets, the more valuable he becomes in terms of experience and wisdom. Children, even when they are adults, still live with their parents to take care of them and benefit from their advice;

3- Religious background:

Islam is communal religion: prayer is best done in community, and so is pilgrimage and Ramadan, three important pillars of Islam. Also, not to forget the concept of the ummah: Islamic nation, the nation of the faithful.

The tea ceremony

The communal sense of the Moroccan society is best symbolized by the tea ceremony, in the traditional sense. The extended or large family gather around the circular tray for this ceremony that is initiated by the master of the house. This ceremony is not only about making and drinking tea, it is about renewing the bonds of togetherness after a day of work, and the sweetness of the tea is one way of gluing the ties of family membership forever. During the long ceremony, people exchange stories and news and interact and renew the vows of love.

This social function was celebrated by the famous popular group, Nass El Ghiwane in the early 70s of the last century by their song entitled, “siniyya” with a tone of bitterness and grief, as if crying over the loss of this habit:

Fin li jam3ou 3lik ahl niyya Wa hya siniyya Douk li wansouk Fin ahl ljoud w rda Fin 7oumti wa liliya Wa hya sinniya “Where are those who gathered around you O wonderful tray Where are the good and generous people Who partook in the ceremony Where are the sweet nights in my neighborhood O wonderful tray”

This togetherness was also symbolized by the circular format of the dining table and the living room. Today, this circularity is broken forever by the intrusion of the television set into homes, and as a result togetherness is merely physical and not verbal, and the dining table has become rectangular and the tea tray oval. Worse, the tea ceremony has ceased to exist in urban dwellings and it only survives in rural areas.

In spite of the invasion of the information technology of the Moroccan homes, the togetherness concept is still strong, the warm culture described by Erin Geneva is still commonplace, thank God.

Eye contact and touching

Moroccans express their warmth, love and togetherness by touching, kissing, hugging and making eye contact. It is totally accepted, if not encouraged, by their social code. Words alone will not convey the warmth of feelings; they have to be accompanied by physical touch or eye contact.

In older times, women used to wear a white cloth, named 7aik, over their body letting only one eye show, but that eye can be extremely expressive when the contact is made with another person. It could express appreciation, disapproval, sexual interest, etc.

When I was a student in London in the late 70s, I used to travel daily from North London to Central London to go to the university. During my time in London, my favorite hobby was watching the people riding the underground. I did not realize that I was minding other people’s business and intruding on their bubble, and by so doing breaking the social code of conduct. One day, however, a lady sitting next to me handed me a newspaper:

- Here young man read, she said

- I do not want to read ma’am, I replied

- Do read and stop eyeing other people, it is very rude.

Everybody in the car stopped reading and looked at me to show their approval of her suggestion. Since then, I always carried some reading material with me.

The Moroccans, besides their use of Tamazight, Arabic or other international verbal languages for communication, make use of a “silent language”, the language of gestures and touches. Love is not expressed well enough if hugging and kissing is not used, and approval will not be approval if a wink is not made, etc.

This “silent language” is very extended and very precise, and visitors to Morocco find difficulties in using this language and, sometimes they use the wrong gesture. I remember many Peace Corps Volunteers talking about their students laughing at them for using a gesture with sexual connotation, without meaning to, of course.

Morocco is undoubtedly the land of many enigmas and the “silent language” is definitely one of them. It remains mysterious and secretive, so long as it is not broken and its content is assimilated.

In Morocco, minding other people’s business, to use the expression of Erin Geneva, is not a license to be nosy and impolite. There are limits to this dictated by religion, social etiquette, respect of the other, politeness and the famous concept of improperness, 7chouma.

The Moroccans do not mind the business of each other to encroach on their privacy, but to express respect, love and warmth and to bring them within the Moroccan social interaction circle, so they do not feel alienated, but can be an integral part of the society. It is also a way of sharing food, good times, celebrations and human brotherhood.

In short, minding other people’s business is a potent form of dialogue of cultures and the best form of inter-cultural communication that is possible, especially in a time when the world has become a planetary village, as the Canadian visionary social scientist Marshal predicted in the 50s.

By Youssef Sourgo

Morocco World News

Casablanca, July 24, 2013

On July 13, Princess Lala Zineb inaugurated BM Events’ first event in Morocco at Villa Jawhara in Rabat, alongside its founder Yassine Abouyaala and many influential political and artistic figures from Morocco and abroad.

On this occasion, BM Events organized, in collaboration with a number of media agencies, its first event entitled, “La Nuit du Beldi" (an evening of traditional attire), for the benefit of Lala Meriem Center for Children Protection.

The goal was to bring awareness to the needs of these children in hopes of granting them the help and attention they need. Nabila Kilani hosted the event with a number of honorary guests, namely Moroccan actress Latifa Ahrar, the actress Wassila Subhi, Anas al-Baz, Farid Rajraji and the journalist Imane Kada.

In an atmosphere typical of the holy month of Ramadan, the invitees broke their fast right before the kick-off of the sublime fashion exhibition planned for the event.

The designers who showcased their magnificent work included, Meriem Belkhayat, Abdul Hanin Alruah, Safaa Ebrahimi, Amani Giati, Abdulwahab Bnhdo, and Abdul Wahad Belghazi.

The ceremony also featured singing performances, offered by two talented young Moroccan singers, Yousra Saouf, one of the most fascinating voices who participated in Arab Idol’s second edition, and Mourad Bouriki, the winner of The Voice’s previous edition.

When Yassine Abouyaala was asked about his impressions on the even the told MWN, “I am so delighted and particularly honored by the presence of HH Lala Zineb. I would like to congratulate the BM Events team thanks to whom the hard work paid off greatly."

"I hope that the people who attended the event will visit the Center to give hand to these children. They do need our help,” he added.

By Chokri Omri

Morocco World News

Tunis, August 6, 2013

What ground do we still pretend to have for saying that this is the right way in which we should live? We have to learn how to root out everything that does not go in conformity with logic and reason. If first, we do not succeed, we need to try reading the directions. We should not live as they want us to live . We should live as we want them to believe. Indeed, we should live and wait for no one of us to be ready to show that he can be manipulated by those who never knew how to manipulate themselves except towards darkness and destruction. Each one of us has in himself the capacity for making all of this into practice. What stops us? Of course, it is respect that stops us. We belong to a certain order of things. In fact, we have been told that we belong to that specific order of things? The order of being weak and in need of civilization.

One has to respect every day as irrespectively of anything else as possible. One has to respect and show his greatfulness to the many and many philanthropist men of our age. “If malice and vanity “, Emerson said, “wear the coat of philanthropy, Shall that pass?” To respect them is one’s duty in life as a matter of fact. It is basically because onehas to be civilized. Civilization is not as easy as we might seem to think. We have been told that it does not come like that as naturally as the leaves to a tree. It is on those philanthropists that it highly depends.

One cannot help wondering how they have come to be civilized if civilization does not come as the product of ancient people. Nowadays, it has become highly problematic for people to behave in a simple way. Most of all, it has become very difficult for them to enter modern civilization without losing whatever is civilized in them. En présencede cette civilisation si avancée qui pour chaque action, siindifférente qu’elle soit, se charge de vous fournir un modèle qu’il faut suivre, ou du moins auquel il faut faire son procés, ce sentiment de dévouement sincère et sans bornes est bien prés de donner le bonheur parfait. STENDHAL had rightly put it.

History has never ceased to provide us with numbers without number of instances that reveal and tell how great people managed to handle the torch of humanity. ‘If you come near the boat, I will shoot you right through the head. For I am resolved to have my freedom’. But in so far as we are all concerned, no matter how barren and sterile we are being presented to the world and seen by others as such, we have to prove them wrong. Most of all, we have to be ashamed of nothing but of being ashamed. It is merely on account of the fact that, so to speak, we do have something like a duty to perform in this life of ours.

Our duty is to be without any duty save that of our Lord. As for earthly constraints, they are just imposed upon us and can certainly be evaded with hard work. Our duty is to live as we are told to live and do as we are told to do not by humans but by our creator. No sooner did Man take the life of his brother and the sad film began to be shown. But again, we all need to go on. Life is a gift in one way or another. Therefore, we need to profit from it and avoid hurting one another. Why should we bear grudgy things against each other when there is really no need for that? Is it owing to an external force that we are saying things while doing other ones? La feintise, mon dieu, à quoi bon avoir la feintise? Pour quelle raison? En feignant de faire une chose on en fasse en réalité une autre.

But how about those who are doing exactly what they are saying? Do we really belong to them? A question asked which is never answered. Life is a journey in which we are asked to take one way . To try to take more than one way will not be of any service to us. One way is enough. So let it be the right one.The right way is one in which we will never feel that we are selfish. Stagnation and inertia are to be given no mind. They can only drive to stupidity and procrastination. 'Day unto day, Life wastes and wanes like a candle burning itsoils away till nought but charred wick remains.'

People, these days, do not come across any difficulty in pretending to be right while they are anything but that. After all, as it must be stated, we are all tasked to stop allowing ourselves to judge things and see whether they are right or wrong. We are to live and stop making things come to their ends before thay have really started. Fourvoyer les choses pour rien et pour ainsi faire mal à nous même. We are to learn how to live and nothing else. More importantly, we are to accommodate ourselves to the changes of life while having that special kind of principles’s retention which takes a great deal from itself in order to imbue this life of ours with meaning and significance. It is a kind of resisting and withstanding to the cold and harsh reality, a way of accepting life not as it is but rather as it really aught to be.

Besides, it is undeniably true that any attempt, whether serious or ridiculous, at platonizing life is bound to be a great failure. But at the same time, it will not deprive us of that feeling of confort and safety in a world that has really started to be a little bit absurd and futile. Our hope, then, is to be sustained and intensified on the cess of those constant attempts to live as all real men would have chosen to live. We are really in need to handle a life of our own. A life that does not sound like death. A life that accepts no such thing as stoicism or human suffering.

Chokri Omri was born in 1985. He is a teacher of English, poet and writer from Tunisia. A number of his poems and articles, both Arabic and English, have been translated into Spanish and Romanian and published in Contemporary literary Horizon Magazine, The Exhibitionist and The Tunis Times

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy

By Omar Bihmidine

Morocco World News

Tangier, August 17, 2013

Every year, during the summer holidays, a collective wedding ceremony is held along with other annual festivities of Tifawin in Tafraout, a southern city, and its outskirts. According to the organizing committee, only ten couples are selected to benefit from the ceremony on the basis of some conditions described below. A number of people from many parts of Morocco attend and take part in celebrating this exotic and cultural ceremony.

Of the Tifawin festivities, the most remarkable and interesting of all is the mass wedding which youth of the region take advantage of to marry for free and receive a sum of money on this occasion to support themselves during the first three months of their married life. The initiative was mainly aimed at encouraging and motivating the unmarried youth to marry.

The collective wedding in Tafraout is very different from that of other parts of the world. Here, when a man and a woman agree to marry, their wedding is characterized by several rites and traditions. During the mass wedding, brides, for instance, do not show their faces to the public; they cover them with a chic, red piece of clothing, and they dress the rest of their body in black. The black clothing must not be comprehended as gloomy. On the contrary, the black dress of the region has long been regarded as fashionable. As for the grooms, they wear white Jellabas and yellow slippers.

This year’s mass wedding ceremony, which takes place on Saturday, August 18th, is multi-dimensional. It can be seen as an incentive for young men and women to marry so as to avert today’s temptations and to preserve their chastity. It can also be seen as a sign of solidarity with and support for the youth who are obsessed with a phobia of marriage and future.

“This is a golden opportunity of our youth to start their families. It is our duty to support them financially and morally,” said Lahcen Hssaini, president of the Tafawin Festival Association.”

“It is also an opportunity for us to expose to the world our exotic wedding traditions that are characteristic of the region,” he added.

“Thanks to this initiative, I finally got married. We have been offered pats on our shoulders and supported by our families, friends and relatives to settle down. The initiative motivated us to marry,” one of last year’s beneficiaries from the mass wedding told MWN.

“I have always hesitated to get married and shoulder the responsibility of a married life. But, last year, thanks to much encouragement from those behind the initiative, I decided to get married and start my family like all other couples in the region,” he added.

So far, the initiative has proved a great success, and it has been warmly hailed by many key regional figures because of the social and cultural dimensions pertaining to the ceremony. For example, at the social level, the initiative targets the needy of the region through strengthening the social ties of their everyday lives.

At the cultural level, the initiative has been meant to contribute to the eradication of some dangers of sexual relations among youth, a recently growing phenomenon in Tafraout. Also, at a time when destructive signs of modernization are permeating every corner of this conservative region, many believe that the initiative of the collective wedding is the solution to alleviate many negative behaviors. Among the latter are get-togethers that men and women traditionally hold in Tafraout.

For anyone desiring to benefit from this mass wedding, several conditions must be met:

1) One of the spouses must originally be from the region of Tafraout.

2) The marriage contract must be signed on the day of the wedding.

3) Submission of some administrative documents, such as the celibacy certificate, marriage permission, medical certificate, birth certificate and a copy of the national identity card.

For the ceremony beneficiaries, they are awarded 10,000 DHs and coverage of the marriage contract expenses.

On this occasion, let’s wish this year’s ten ceremony beneficiaries a forever happy married life!

Tafraout, Morocco- MWN

According to research conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics, writing down your life experiences and emotions can benefit your health remarkably and help you feel better about the life you are currently leading.

Sharing your feelings and perceptions about life through writing, the study suggests, can help you attain moral support, a sense of self-actualization and self-fulfillment.

Seminal research published by Prof James W. Pennebaker shows that there is a correlation between writing down one's emotions and becoming healthier.

Online or paper-based writing, Prof Pennebaker explains, encourages writers to let go of their traumatic experiences and feel that the burden on their shoulders is eventually taken off.

A trouble shared is a trouble halved, some say. This is why some psychologists have found that sharing your trouble with others through writing or any other means is an uplifting experience.

"That just led me to ask the obvious question... if secrets are so bad, what if we brought people into the lab and had them in some way just disclose them?" Prof Pennebaker was quoted by BBC English website as saying.

According to Professor Laura A. King, editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, bottling up emotions for long leaves destructive effects on both our physical and mental health.

Expressing oneself through writing, psychologists point out, contributes to alleviating stress and overcoming moody swings and mental problems.

"If you keep your emotions bottled up it's going to make you sick, or you're going to get an ulcer, or you're going to have a psychological disorder, " Laura A. King told the BBC.

In today's world where we get stressful easily and many people develop psychological problems, creating a blog where bloggers can share their thoughts and feelings about their lives can do much good.

Recently, researchers at the University of Haifa in Israel found out that people with social-emotional problems can benefit from blogging and writing down their thoughts, particularly since the results have proved therapeutic.

Edited by Anna Jacobs

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

PARIS

Eating more whole fresh fruit, especially blueberries, grapes, apples and pears, is linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, but drinking more fruit juice has the opposite effect, says a study.

British, US and Singaporean researchers pored over data from three big health investigations that took place in the United States, spanning a quarter of a century in all.

More than 187,000 nurses and other professional caregivers were enrolled.

Their health was monitored over the following years, and they regularly answered questionnaires on their eating habits, weight, smoking, physical activity and other pointers to lifestyle.

Around 6.5 percent of the volunteers developed diabetes during the studies.

People who ate at least two servings each week of certain whole fruits, especially blueberries, grapes and apples, reduced their risk of type 2 diabetes by as much as 23 percent compared to those who ate less than one serving per month.

"Our findings provide novel evidence suggesting certain fruits may be especially beneficial for lower diabetes risk," said Qi Sun, an assistant professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

On the other hand, those who consumed one or more servings of fruit juice each day saw their risk of the disease increase by as much as 21 percent.

Swapping three servings of juice per week for whole fruits resulted in a seven-percent reduction in risk, although there was no such difference with strawberries and cantaloupe melon.

"Greater consumption of specific whole fruits, particularly blueberries, grapes, and apples, was significantly associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, whereas greater fruit juice consumption was associated with a higher risk," the authors say in the paper.

The paper, published on Friday by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), says further work is needed to to explore this "significant" difference.

It speculates that, even if the nutritional values of whole fruit and fruit juice are similar, the difference lies with the fact that one food is a semi-solid and the other a liquid.

"Fluids pass through the stomach to the intestine more rapidly than solids even if nutritional content is similar," says the paper.

"For example, fruit juices lead to more rapid and larger changes in serum [blood] levels of glucose and insulin than whole fruits."

The study also points to evidence that some kinds of fruit have a beneficial effect for health.

Berries and grapes, for instance, have compounds called anthocyanins which have been found to lower the risk of heart attacks.

But, say the authors, how or even whether this also applies to diabetes risks is for now unclear.

The investigation looked at data from the Nurses' Health Study, which ran from 1984-2008; the Nurses' Health Study II (1991-2009); and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986-2008).

Ten kinds of fruit were used in the questionnaire: grapes or raisins; peach, plums or apricots; prunes; bananas; cantaloupe melon; apples or pears; oranges; grapefruit; strawberries; and blueberries.

The fruit juices identified in the questionnaire were apple, orange, grapefruit and "other."

Casablanca- She is the first lady of Morocco, Princess consort of King Mohamed VI. She holds some of the most prestigious honors, namely Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II of Belgium (2004), and Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic of Spain (2005).  She is Princess Lalla Salma.

She was a highly qualified information services engineer before becoming one of Morocco’s most cherished Princesses and one of the world’s most influential and elegant women. Princess Lalla Salma is known for playing numerous significant roles in Morocco, mainly social and cultural, some of which are supporting cancer associations and Fez Sacred Music Festival.

Internationally, Princess Lalla Salma has been successfully representing Morocco during a number of important ceremonies and events across the world. She is the ambassador of Moroccan women, Moroccan culture and Moroccan elegance and beauty across the world.

Princess Lalla Salma’s presence during many international events and ceremonies has been described on many occasions as exceptionally distinguished by many international voices, principally because of her majestic elegance, reflected in the cluster of beautiful and distinctive Moroccan attires she wears during those events.

During the coronation ceremony of the new Dutch King, Willeim-Alexander, last May, Princess Lalla Salma easily stole the spotlight twice from other royal, female attendants, appearing elegant in one of Morocco’s finest Kaftans and jewelries. While other princesses and queens who attended the ceremony opted for formal, yet magnificent dresses, Princess Lalla Salma attended the ceremony wearing one of Morocco’s most sophisticated attires, the Kaftan.

Her elegance, with a 100% Moroccan flavor, ranked her most elegant female royal attendee during Williem-Alexander’s coronation ceremony. Subsequent to this event, UK’s Hello Magazine launched a best-dressed poll on its website to designate the most elegant among the Queens and Princesses who attended the coronation Ceremony. The majority if online voters chose Princess Lalla Salma’s outfit as their favorite.

Her majestic attire earned her 38% of the vote, closely followed by Denmark's elegant Princess Mary with 37%. This wasn’t all! The following day, as The Netherlands welcomed its new King, Princess Lala Salma stepped out with another magnificent Moroccan attire. This one earned Morocco’s first lady 45% of the vote, with a large gap between her and Queen Maxima, who earned only 22% of the votes.

“Mother-of-two Lalla Salma turned heads in a heavily embellished green caftan and towering gold heels. Floral detailing on the front of the caftan matched the Moroccan princess' flame red curls, which she wore in a ponytail,” wrote UK’s Hello Magazine on May 12.

Princess Lala Salma deservedly stole the spotlight twice from her fellow royal women, only proving that Morocco’s glamorous Kaftan has what it takes to compete with the world’s most elaborate fashion trends.

Here surfaces Princess Lalla’s Salma’s role as a cultural ambassador. Her ranking as most elegant royal woman during these ceremonies does not only put her alone in the limelight; rather, it is Morocco’s entire culture that becomes an international interest. A previous article on MWN demonstrates how the world’s most beautiful and influential female celebrities have found in Kaftan a match to their distinctive beauty and refined taste in fashion.

Princess Lalla Salma is an ambassador of Moroccan distinctive sense of elegance and beauty. Her own sense of elegance is an mixture of Morocco’s traditional conceptualization of beauty, to which she remains faithful, as well as our contemporary era’s modernist breath.

Princess Lalla Salma only substantiates the idea that a Moroccan woman is most beautiful when she clings to her own cultures conceptualization of beauty and elegance. Most women around the world prefer to subscribe to the conventional, mainstream and globalized sense of beauty and fashion, whilst a scarce few remain faithful to their own culture’s definition of what makes a woman beautiful.

Morocco’s First Lady is also the ambassador of the contemporary Moroccan woman, the one that proves qualified and capable of taking up responsibility and leadership roles which have for long been traditionally restricted to men. She is an unwavering proof that Morocco has embraced a new, constructive position towards women unlike that medievalist, downgrading one it had held decades ago. Women now are as crucial to Morocco’s development as men are. Princess Lalla Salma is a towering evidence. 

By Mourad Beni-ich

WASHINGTON - What is Friggatriskaidekaphobia? According to Urban Dictionary, it is “the fear of Friday 13th. The Frigga is for Friday, the triskai is for 3, the deka means 10, so triskaideca means 13, and phobia is the fear.”

So today is Friday 13^th, and whether people consider it to be the unluckiest day of the year, laugh in the face of superstition, or see it as an excuse to watch their favorite slasher movie, there is no denying that it is one of the calendar’s most loaded dates.

However, where does all the brouhaha surrounding Friday the 13^th stem from?

Fear of Friday 13^th is suffered by millions of Americans, according to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, N.C. The phobia is referred to as “friggatriskaidekaphobia, a 99-year-old word made up of a combination of the Norse and Greek roots words for ‘Friday’ (Paraskeví), ’13? (dekatreís) and ‘fear’ (phobia)”.

As a great deal of superstitions and phobias stems from oral tradition, putting together their history is mostly guesswork. Nevertheless, for many centuries, many cultures considered the number 13 as an unlucky number, and Friday has been considered the week’s most unlucky day. Put these two together and the most superstitious minds will work over time.

Today we see the widespread suspicion of the number 13 everywhere. The 13th floors are missing in many buildings, airports gate skip from 12 to 14, and the number 13 is left off of hotel rooms. Many athletes are hard-pressed to wear a 13 on their jersey, and in a deck of Tarot cards, the death card is the 13th card.

But according to Dan Brown, in his bestselling book The DaVinci Code, this date is the origin for the unlucky “Friday the thirteenth,” though there are many theories on that designation’s origin. On October 13, 1307, France’s King Philip IV ordered the abrupt arrest of all the Knights Templar, which had accrued considerable monies and lands in two centuries. Philip accused the Templars of various forms of sacrilege, and since they were a tightly disciplined secret order, they had difficulty disclosing their true activities. Pope Clement V vehemently protested the king’s actions, and he suspended the bishops and inquisitors who helped interrogate and torture the Knights, but by 1312, he had become persuaded that the order was sufficiently nefarious and corrupt to suppress it. Dan Brown’s account eliminates Philip’s role in the process, singularly blaming the pope, who in fact had initially tried valiantly to protect the order.

Many historians link the date to the events that surrounded the Knights Templars scandal in France. It is recorded that the Templars and their Commander Jacques De Molay were arrested, tortured and interrogated on Friday October 13^th, 1307. They were ultimately found guilty of heresy and were burned at stake on March 19^th, 1314. Since then many Knights Templars sympathizers considered the day of the detention of their Commander a doomed day and any Friday 13^th thereafter.

All in all, the myth of the curse of Friday 13^th is no more than a folklore, and mankind is known for being so attached to mythology and consider it a cornerstone to justify the supernatural or what is a random human brain cannot explain.  Most people are so terrified by the reality of existence, they refuse to even consider the possibility that they can live without their myths. Every secular institution from public schools to government bureaucracies do all they can to keep the terror alive because the secular institutions of social control can only survive if people believe the secular myths just like the religious institutions can only survive if people believe the paranormal myths.

Happy Friday the 13^th!

Elad Nehorai- New York

I'm a ridiculous, emotional, over-sentimental sap.  I guess that's why I told my wife I loved her on our second date.

I had tried really hard up to that point to hold it back, honestly.  I wanted to tell her on the first date, but I knew that would probably be weird.

I still remember her reaction.  She kind of gave me this half-shy, half-amused smile.  Then she nodded and looked off into the sky.

I wasn't heartbroken by the response.  I think part of me recognized that she was much smarter and more modest than me.

But as time has gone on, I also realized that she knew something that I didn't.

Like most Hasidic Jews (we both became religious later in life), our dating period lasted a very short time.  After two months of dating, we were engaged.  Three months after that, we were married.

And that whole time I was swooning.  This fire was burning in me, a fire that burned just like that second date: I was in love.

But then we got married, and everything changed.

Marriage, quicker than I was ready for, did this thing: It started sucking away that emotion.

I tried so hard to keep that fire going, to keep that emotion alight, but it got harder and harder.

I mean, how you can feel that burning love when you're sitting at the table discussing how to use the last $20 in your bank account?

How can you feel it when you get into an argument?

How can you feel it when you think it makes perfect sense to put your socks on the floor after you're done with them, and she has this crazy idea that they need to go in the laundry basket?

There was no way I could keep that dating fire burning as practicality invaded our lives.

And at first, it drove me nuts.  That emotion meant love!  That excitement was how I knew I cared for her!  But suddenly, life was this grind.  Even when I was with her.  Especially when I was with her.

And even worse, it seemed that the harder I tried to be sentimental and lovey-dovey, the less it was reciprocated.

But it wasn't that she wasn't giving me love, it just seemed to come at different times.

Like, when I offered to do the dishes.  Or make dinner after she had a hard day.  Or, once we had a daughter, when I shared the responsibility of watching over her.

I don't think I noticed this consciously for a while.  It just kept happening.

But I think it had an effect on me.  Because as our marriage progressed, I found myself offering to help out around the house more and more.

And after each time, there would be this look she would give me.  This look of absolute love.  One that was soft and so beautiful.

It took me longer than I care to admit to understand what was happening.

But eventually it became clear.  Through giving, through doing things for my wife, the emotion that I had been so desperately seeking naturally came about.  It wasn't something I could force, just something that would come about as a result of my giving.

In other words, it was in the practicality that I found the love I was looking for.

And what was even more interesting was that once I realized this on a conscious level, and started trying to find more opportunities to give, the more we both, almost intuitively, became lovey-dovey.

And now, as I'm a bit older and a bit more experienced with this relationship, I've finally come to realize something. Something I haven't wanted to admit for a long time, but is undeniable.

I didn't love my wife on that second date.

I didn't love her when we got engaged.

I didn't even love her when we got married.

Because love isn't an emotion.  That fire I felt, it was simply that: emotional fire.  From the excitement of dating a woman I felt like I could marry.  But it wasn't love.

No, love isn't an emotion or even a noun.  It's a verb.  Better defined as giving.  As putting someone else's needs above your own.

Why wasn't I getting reciprocal lovey-doveyness when we were first married?  Because it wasn't for her.  It was for me.  An emotion I had in my chest.

And even when I let it out of my chest, it wasn't love.

Being sappy isn't love.  Telling someone you love them doesn't mean that you do.

And that's why my wife just gave me that half-smile.  She knew, even if I didn't, what love really is.

And now that I've tried to change the way I look at love, the more I become shocked at the messages of love I had gotten when I was younger.

From Disney movies, to my favorite shows like The Office, to practically every pop song released, love is constantly sold as an emotion we have before we're married.  An emotion that, once had, somehow magically stays within a marriage forever.

I can't imagine a bigger lie.  And I'm saddened to think about how much those messages bounced around in my head for so long.  And how much I'm sure those messages are bouncing around in other people's heads as well.

I think that might be a big part of the reason the divorce rate is so high in this country.  Imagine a whole nation of people constantly chasing the emotions they had when they were dating.  A country of people trying to live a Disney movie.

That's a recipe for disastrous marriages; for a country with a 50 percent divorce rate;  for adultery (the classic attempt to turn the fire back on); for people who do stay together to simply live functional, loveless marriages.

It's sad to see just how common all the above is.  How many people are in pain simply because they've been lied to.

Those people deserve better.  We all deserve better.

It's time that we changed the conversation about love.  It's time that we redefine it.

Because until we do, adultery will continue to be common.  Loveless marriages.  Divorce.

Living Disney movies in our minds, and tragedies in our lives.

Elad Nehorai is a writer living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Five years ago, he became a religious Jew in the Chabad Hasidic community and has since written about his experience extensively, most recently in his blog Pop Chassid, where this post originally appeared. He's also the CMO of a startup called Charidy designed for people who want to help give to nonprofits.

Source: Pop Chassid

Casablanca- One of the many definitions of art one may think of is “art as a form of expression.” Vague as it is, this definition of art points out one of its major aims, which is to allow a different way of expressing oneself and communicating with “others” as well as with one’s own “self.”

Looking at art from the viewpoint of an artist, one sees it as the most “expressive” forms of communication and expression. Instead of locking oneself in a room after breaking up with a loved one, crying for the following couple of weeks (or months, depending on how attached we are to that person), a more artistic and engaged way of expressing our agony could be, for instance, to “paint our pain.” We may then feel a sort of relief afterwards, depending on the amount of sincerity and engagement invested in our artistic expression.

The act of creating something from nothing accords most people a sense of accomplishment. One could argue that suicide and the desire to create something are sometimes motivated by the same feelings. One of the reasons people resort to suicide is their feelings of uselessness and worthlessness in their lives and in those of the people they care for. Our inclination to artistic expression, such as painting, is also sometimes motivated by a feeling of indifference—our thinking that if we express those feelings in their natural manifestation, no one will understand us, and a sense of discontent will consequently haunt us.

We thus resort to art as a medium of expression and communication, as it allows us an infinite spectrum of possibilities of sharing our feelings and having them understood depending on each individual’s interpretation of them. We may even learn more about ourselves from people’s interpretation of our artistic products.

An artist is perhaps the most knowledgeable person of himself or herself. Their works of art lure us into decrypting the messages and feelings they artistically encode in them. After creating a work of art, an artist steps aside and observes people’s reactions to and interpretations of it. Artists collect this rich amount of interpretive data and save it for future reference. Other, more sophisticated artists, would use that data to learn more about themselves, or about existence in general.

Art provokes reflections, criticisms and reactions that are more or less similar to one another, but never identical. My reading of a painting or my reaction to a symphony may share common features with that of the person contemplating the painting right next to me in an art gallery, or with the person sitting next to me in a theater. Yet, our ideas, the product of our thinking of what that piece of art could actually mean or intend to say, will never be identical to that of our fellow appreciators. Interpretations of art are like fingerprints—you could swear that mine is identical to yours, but they never occur to be so.

What is artistic is usually referred to as what is sophisticated, unique, or whose duplication and reproduction by someone else is almost impossible. Some works of art are agreeably unique and have defied time and history to be more recognizable than the people who created them. Such timeless works of art as those of the likes of Da Vinci, for instance, have come to be the ultimate manifestations of certain forms of artistic expression. No one has painted, or is likely to paint, like Da Vinci. Their works of art have become “artistic facts,” unarguably labeled as art in its most supreme manifestations.

Yet, art is not only about originality and sophistication. It is also what’s mundane, duplicable and found in our day-to-day life. The way a leaf lands down on a ground, where it lands and what details are specific to that very leaf. That’s art—perhaps sometimes not impressive because of its ordinariness, but still impressive because of the millions of possibilities that emerged out of. Each leaf has a personal identity based on the how, where and when of the specificities of its landing on the ground. Each person has a personal artistic identity based on how, when and where he or she expresses himself or herself artistically. Whether the work is sophisticated or not is no longer an urgent criterion of judging artistic expressions.

As to the power of art, it is so boundless that it covers all aspects of life and can perhaps substitute many (conscious and unconscious) human acts. Art can heal, torture, kill, save lives, inspire, build dreams or shatter them, educate or render ignorant, foster and a value or eradicate perceptions, serve as a means of colonization, resistance or liberation, and the list is limitless.

Art could be, or is already, a powerful way of purging people, of ridding them of all their insanity, sinfulness and hunger for violence. What if all criminals now behind bars for committing acts of violence considered the act of creating something personal, something that nobody else could create because of the acutely distinctive specificities invested in it, something that could earn them people’s respect and appreciation without having to pull triggers, break noses or elbows, smoke weed or drink alcohol? Wouldn’t that make our prisons emptier than most streets at 4:00 am?

Artistic education should become a priority in all corners of the world. Encouraging people to translate their most incontrollable and acute impulses into artistic products would give birth to a new generation of young people, more peaceful, productive, reflective, and, most of all, more forgiving. Urging our kids to create and appreciate creation, divine be it or human-made, is not aimed at producing more artists in our society, but, rather, to produce more change for the better.

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