Morocco faces a choice between modernism and obscurantism

Daily Star ^ | 10/17/06 | Anna Mahjar-Barducci

[Valin]

As Morocco prepares for the next parliamentary elections in 2007, the electoral-campaign battle has already begun, and intellectuals and civil society are wondering which Morocco the population will choose. The elections will represent a battle between two main political forces: the liberal-socialist bloc and the Islamist Party of Justice and Development (PJD).

In the run-up to the polls, newspapers are full of debate about constitutional reforms and the overwhelming role of the monarchy. The liberal class that is trying to push Morocco toward modernization encounters two obstacles: the monarchy, which must be given credit for accepting to reform the Family Code and allowing greater freedom of speech in recent years; and, more importantly, the Islamists, who are preventing any changes in traditional Moroccan society.

During my last visit to Morocco, I was very eager to watch the latest hit: the movie "Marock" - a word play on Maroc (French for Morocco ) and rock music - by young film director Leila Marrakshi. The movie brings to light the division within Moroccan society - which is in a way reflected in the wider Arab and Muslim worlds - between modernism and obscurantism, between liberals and Islamists, and between pluralism of religion and the prevention of it.

The plot of "Marock" publicly breaks many of Moroccan society's taboos. Rita, the protagonist, is a 17-year-old girl who has just finished high school. She wants to enjoy the summer with her friends, hanging around in the city of Casablanca, drinking alcohol - like many Moroccans do, as wine is available in many supermarkets - and looking for guys. She has all the dreams and frustrations of any normal teenager.

One of the scenes which summarizes the main theme of the movie is when Rita, dressed in short pants, is talking with her brother, Mao. As she is looking for her jeans, she suddenly notices - with shock - that her brother is bowing down to begin his prayers. Mao, who has been struggling with the remorse of an accident in which he killed a man while driving his car, is trying to find relief in religion.

"What is happening to you? Did you beat your head somewhere?" Rita asks her brother in a provocative tone. "Did you become stupid? Do you think you are in Algeria or what? Will you also let your beard grow?"

Mao doesn't respond and continues reciting his prayers. "Dad! Mom! Your son became crazy! ... You are praying in the wrong direction! Mecca is on the other side," says Rita.

The dialogue between the two demonstrates a mutual incomprehension. Neither characters can manage to understand the other. Rita, on the one hand, cannot accept any religious ritual. Mao, however, cannot grasp that to be a Moroccan you do not necessarily have to be a Muslim, and applies religion mechanically with a bit of ignorance, by praying in the wrong direction.

Rita also breaks a second taboo: She eats during Ramadan. In one scene, the young girl has her mouth full of food and one of the housekeepers, Moui Fatma, asks whether she is ashamed of eating in public. Rita responds directly, saying that she has her period. "Your period?" repeats Moui Fatma. "Since when does a period last a whole month?" http://www.dailystar.com.lb

This dialogue raises the question of how many people - including members of my family - eat in the dark of their kitchens during Ramadan. In a two-page article, the Islamist newspaper Attajdid, which in a country of more than 32 million people sells only 5,000 copies, attacked the character Rita for being a "Muslim who doesn't respect Islam." The response of Ahmed Benshemsi, editorialist of Tel Quel, was prompt. Rita, who was born into a Muslim family, is certainly a Muslim by law, he wrote. However, "jurisdiction can force you to be hypocrite, and this is the case of millions of us, who pretend to be what we are not," wrote Benshemsi. "So, let's just say it once for all: We cannot be born Muslims (nor Jews, nor Christians). We can only choose whether or not to become Muslims."

Benshemsi's remarks illustrate that the debate in Moroccan society is not about choosing between secularism and Islam. Rather, it is a matter of either accepting or rejecting pluralism and diversity, even within various schools of Islamic thought.

In the course of the plot, Rita also also a boyfriend: a Moroccan Jew named Youri. Of course, this part of the movie was the most criticized by the Islamists, who did not hesitate to accuse the movie of being "Zionist." "Marock" has also been denounced as an instrument of Western "cultural colonialism." The "Western model" is certainly a leitmotif of the movie. However, the film also raises issues about a society struggling to find its own identity and achieve democracy and progress without loosing its "Moroccaness."

"Marock" might be at times overly simplistic, but it raises a debate about what kind of society we want to become - a question of particular importance in the view of upcoming elections. Driss Chraibi, in his book "Le PassŽ Simple" (Simple Past), written during the period when Morocco was gaining independence from France, argued that modernization is the only solution and that "tradition" is corrupted. According to Fouad Laroui, a contemporary Moroccan writer, our country is still facing the same two choices: to be the Morocco that looks toward the future or the one that embraces the hallucinations of the past. "Of these two Moroccos," he writes, "between the one that goes ahead with confidence and the one which makes circles in water, I won't tell you, for a matter of objectivity, which one I prefer the most."

Anna Mahjar-Barducci is a Tunis-based Moroccan-Italian journalist. She was a correspondent in the Occupied Territories during the second intifada. Her commentaries are regularly published in the Italian daily Il Foglio. She wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR.

[ClaireSolt]

40% unemployment and this is it?

[Valin]

We'll see what happens. Just another example of the civil war inside the Islamic world.