Women are best to wear loose fitting clothes that cover most of the body

Women are best to wear loose fitting clothes that cover most of the body
What you wear reflects your social status in Morocco probably more than anything else. Even those with the least financial means will dress as smart as they can.

Clothes are also often used as a statement about your view on life. For example, Moroccans with a more "western" attitude shun beards and traditional garments like the djellaba exactly because these are the favorite attributes of devout muslims.


Tourists

The ground rule for foreign visitors is: you can wear anything you like, provided you are willing to face the consequences. Flaunting the local dresscodes may result in anything from innocent sniggering by Moroccans to seriously offending people.

Let's separate the fashion bloopers from the cultural misjudgments.

For men, wearing anything that can be perceived as underwear in public will cause some good-spirited grins. Moroccans love to joke about the lack of style of the archetypal "German tourist", wearing shorts, an old t-shirt, hiking boots with knee-high socks and a guide book.

Less appreciated is walking around showing your bare chest. This is considered not just poor taste, but also offensive. You should always keep your shirt on, except of course on the beach or at a swimming pool. This rule also applies to hotel corridors, seaside terraces and under the sweltering sun of the desert.

Men who strip down completely in public will cause extreme offence, even in bathhouses ("hammams").

Women tourists walk a much tighter rope in Morocco. Not only does what's acceptable vary between the cities and rural areas, invidual reactions to more "modern" clothes differ widely.

Like Moroccan women who wear revealing clothes, foreign women doing so will attract a lot of attention from men. The constant hisses, whistles and remarks can become very tiresome, even if you manage to follow the example of Moroccan women and consistently ignore the comments. You should seriously assess whether this burden weighs up to any right you feel you have to wear whatever you like.

Many women planning to travel to Morocco only consider the reactions their clothing may provoke in men. In the countryside, however, you may be faced with downright hostility from other women. Fortunately, such aggression is not widespread and occurs mainly south of Marrakech and in the mountains.

In short, it pays for women tourists to adhere to the more conservative dresscode in Morocco. Loose fitting clothes covering most of your body will shield you (at least partly) from unwanted attention. As an added benefit, such clothes also protect you from the heat.

Of course, you can be too zealous in your efforts to fit in. Hardly any woman in Morocco wears the burka, the all-covering dress seen in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Plus, a foreign woman wearing a headscarf will attract just as much attention as when she would be wearing hotpants.

Which brings us to the greatest fashion no-no for tourists: Do not wear traditional local clothes if you want to keep a glimmer of credibility. Kaftans, djellabas and the like are beautiful and very comfortable, no doubt about that, but tourists wearing them look... well, stupid.

Should you insist on going "ethnic", stay away from the more ornately decorated garments. These are only intended for special occasions and you would definitely look out of place wearing them in the streets.


Men
Moroccan men are generally very style-conscious and can spend considerable time grooming and dressing. They won't leave the house unless their clothes are clean, ironed and as smart as they can afford.

Showing skin is seen as a lack of style. Tank tops, shorts and flipflops are considered underwear. Great to wear at home, but not in the streets, unless you're going out to find a game of football or to take a swim.

The same goes for shoes. Even in summer, men prefer wearing closed shoes, worn with at least ankle-high socks. Shoes are polished regularly to get rid of the dust and sand, and many Moroccans won't travel without a tin of shoe polish.

Brands play a big role in a man's decision what clothes to buy. Those who can afford them, will buy genuine designer clothes. Others go for imitations, happily pointing out that Morocco is the "king of counterfeit". Indeed, most "brands" you will find in Morocco are fakes, from Adidas sports shoes to Duracell batteries. Even Ikea (called Kitea in Morocco) is copied illegally.

Cultural values, inspired by religious teachings, impose some restrictions on what a man can wear. Silk clothes, for example, are considered effeminate and too luxurious for men. The same goes for gold jewelry, although you will see lots of Moroccan men wearing discreet gold necklaces. Earrings, piercings and tattoos are deemed "gay" and are only worn by the young, urban "punk" generation as they are firmly anti-establishment.

The same cultural values dictate that a man's hair must be short and well-groomed. Long, dyed or messy hair is sneered at. Moroccans even have a word for such haircuts: M'shekek. With hair like that, a Moroccan man is never going to find a job. Again, only the "punk" youth will let their hair grow, dye it or have patterns shaven into it.

Beards are very much a religious statement in Morocco. Citing the prophet Muhamed, islamic scholars will stress the importance of growing a beard. But ever since lavish facial hair became the essential accessory for islamic militants, the beard has become associated with fundamentalist religious views. So much so, that sporting one now brands a man an "extremist" and may even cause suspicion at police roadblocks.

In general, only devout muslims will grow a full beard. The mustache, another prerequisite for a muslim, is a less contentious issue in Morocco, and a "boucle", or goatee, is quite popular with Moroccans.

Traditional garments, like the kaftan and djellaba, have fallen out of fashion partly because of the same association with religious views that beards have acquired. More importantly, though, traditional attire is considered "old-fashioned" in Morocco. Kaftans, djellabas and fez hats are now mostly worn by older men.

Only on special occasions, such as weddings and religious festivals, will younger men show a sudden preference for these typical Moroccan clothes.


Women
Moroccan women, like men, take great care of their appearance. Dirty, ragged or crumpled clothes are an absolute sign of poverty.

What is acceptable to wear in public for a woman is much more regulated by social and cultural values than is the case with the dresscode for men. In more rural areas, social control is stronger and traditional values still resist foreign influences, such as the ubiquitous soap operas.

In the countryside, shows like "The Bold and the Beautiful" (called "Top Model" in Morocco) serve as ominous proof of all that's wrong with western values. The same programs are eagerly watched in urban households as shining examples of modern living, influencing fashion and women's attitudes.

One of the traditional rules is that a "decent" woman will not display her beauty to any man, except the one she is married to. This means that many Moroccans, men and women, expect women to wear loose-fitting clothes that cover as much of the body as possible.

Showing skin or wearing anything that emphasizes the female forms is frowned upon. Some people will take it as a sign that the woman wearing such "revealing" clothes is "easy", some may even take her for a prostitute, but most will just regard her as vulgar.

The same is true for a woman who wears make-up or dyes her hair. Many claim that the only reason for the use of cosmetics is to make yourself more attractive to men, which is not a "decent" thing to do. Others consider it an unnecessary "masking" of the natural beauty of a woman.

Despite the stigmas, many "modern" Moroccan women will wear "western"-style clothes. Go out into any street of a large Moroccan city and you will see many women wearing tight shirts that reveal anything from the shoulder to the belly-button, short skirts and very close fitting jeans. Make-up and blond hair are very much in fashion, although most women will not use cosmetics during the month of Ramadan.

Moroccan women who dress "modern" perfectly illustrate the paradox of Moroccan society. While they attract some admiration from other women for having the guts to be progressive, more traditional women will scorn them for breaking the rules and leaning dangerously towards "western decadence".

Men, of course, have a lot of admiration for women dressing anything but modestly, allbeit not for any contribution to the feminist cause. Men will gaze, whistle and hiss at women who dress after the "western" fashion. The women, in return, ignore this attention with contempt for such an "old-fashioned" attitude in men.


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Moroccan Dresses

Moroccan Dresses, Traditional Moroccan clothing

The classic Moroccan garment is called "djellaba", a long and loose hooded gown which Moroccans  wear it over their normal clothing. It covers the entire body except for the head, the hands and the feet and it comes in different colors, styles and fabrics depending on the season. During summer a cotton or rayon djellaba is preferred, while during winter a wool one.

The djellaba is worn traditionally both by men and women, but the women's djellaba differs in style as it has brighter colors and decorative embroidery.

Morocco is a country comprising a multitude of people from different ethnic groups. The population of Morocco constitutes people from the East, which includes Berbers, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Jews, and Arabs; the South comprising people from Africa; and the North including Romans, Vandals, and Moors. The multi-faceted composition of Morocco's people has given the nation a rich culture and civilization. Moroccan men traditionally wear a long, loose, hooded piece of clothing with full sleeves called the 'djellaba'. On special occasions, they can be seen donning a red cap called a 'tarbouche', which is referred to as 'Fez'. Most men in Morocco wear soft leather slippers that are traditionally known as 'baboosh'. Women are also known to wear this footwear; however, ladies also wear high-heeled sandals mostly in silver or gold tinsel. The 'djellaba' resembles the Kaftan, however, the only distinguishing factor is that it has a hood. The 'djellaba' for women is available in an array of bright colors along with ornate patterns, beading or stitching; men wear the 'djellaba' in simpler, neutral colors. The overall cost of producing traditional Moroccan wardrobe is expensive as a substantial amount of the work on the clothes is done by hand. Moroccan women's clothing is prepared from silk. Despite the diversity in the cultural heritage of the country, the people of Morocco treasure and cherish their rich culture that has evolved over the years. Moroccan women are known to purchase at lest one traditional outfit every year for either a religious or a family function.



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THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL IMPACTS OF THE INTERNET IN MOROCCO

THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL IMPACTS OF THE INTERNET IN MOROCCO


The most important event of this century is the increase of information and mental activity regarding the industrial production. We are starting a third wave economy. In a first wave economy, the land and farm labor was the main factor of production. In a second wave economy, the industrial production took over, while the land and farm production remained and took profit from the industrialization technological breakthrough.In the new third wave economy, the central resource is the set of data, information, images, symbols, culture, ideology and values or in a single word actionable knowledge. This revolution created a new world, parallel to the real one and inhabited by knowledge, including incorrect ideas, where people can put knowledge, alter it, or take knowledge out: the cyberspace. The portals to this world are any kind of information carriers such as TV sets, telephones, computers, and ultimately the Internet. Each economic wave gives new opportunities for countries to take off and a new inspiration to enhance the production of the previous generation fields. On the cultural side, the Internet by its nature - an interactive bi-directional information flow - will allow each society to know other cultures and to make its own culture known. So, it represents a chance - maybe the last one - for Morocco to improve its culture and give it the rank it deserves among other cultures. The coexistence between this variety of cultures and its availability will probably create a new criterion for social classification. The new definition of human relations through the cyberspace will conceive for each individual a virtual society at the same time with its real one. Morocco has finally entered cyberspace by making available the last portal: Internet. And it may seem logical then that our integration into the third age world would be automatic. But though technically Morocco is now a member of the earth's electronic community, its integration will not be effective until we consider seriously all the implications of connection.In the following pages, we will try to examine these aspects and particularly the social, cultural and economic ones. But first we will make some notes about the information age and our society. We will see then what is the Internet, what makes it that revolutionary and at last how we can make profit of it and give our economy and culture a last takeoff chance. Throughout this study, we will give some opinions based on a query we have done in this framework. The query text is available at the end.
The information age and our society, first notes

Moroccan society made its first steps into the information revolution many years ago. Most Moroccans have TV sets and know how to use a phone. However, only 31.9% of families have phone lines and the communication cost is still high so that many of them use the phone only for the strict necessarity. Therefore, we have not yet develop on-line communication habits or reflexes. Concerning television, we have a private channel which is not affordable by most middle and low class citizens. On the other hand, the programs of the public one does not satisfy new demands for knowledge and novelty in science, culture and entertainment. So, people purchase more and more satellite dishes to watch foreign TV. This new element in the Moroccan audio-visual space may introduce questions about its misdeeds and the changes it could operate on the society.The first drawback is the danger that this uncontrolled diffusion could bend and even erase the Moroccan identity. However, we may note that, for example, the citizens of northern Morocco after years of watching Spanish TV- have purchased satellite dishes once the Arabic channels became available, suggesting they are still concerned with and attached to Arabic identity and culture. Another danger is that the citizen become a negative consumer of the informational material. Indeed, in a very illiterate society - 51% - that suffers lack of artistic activities, TV becomes the world center and the citizen remains a passive viewer and loses his abilities to criticize and take positions toward the one-way information flow received. At last, we may lose the local image inside all the images received and thus dissociate the viewer from the real environment. Nevertheless, and paradoxically it may increase the need of local channels treating local problems and having more chances to succeed. Apart from these drawbacks, satellite reception will make us know other cultures and understand them better. It will contribute to make of us "universal" citizens who will easily integrate the third age world. On the other hand, the Moroccan attitude proves that to have information money doesn't matter since prices are affordable. Satellite reception is somewhat similar to the Internet, specially in being an uncontrolled massive information flow. But on the contrary, Internet is an interactive two-way communication. However the conclusions drawn above can be applied to the Internet case. But first, let us see what it is.
What's the Internet?

The Internet is the most famous computer network that's ever been built. It's a network of networks : it counts millions of computers connected in a web and talking to one other through a common communication protocol which is Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).The concept of Internet appears in 1969 in the United States of America. The Pentagon wanted to get computers communicating around the world without risk of wars and confrontation between the east and the west. In that way, a destruction of a site can not damage or harm the communication between two other sites. To get this transmission secure, the messages are cut into independent packets of information capable to transit by any available way.As consequence, the USA equipped gradually itself with a fast and reliable data transmission network. American universities found this conception very interesting to get researchers communicating their research. The National Science Foundation (NSF) planned to build a network which is going to cover all the American territory and connect all the universities : It was the born of NFSnet, a fast network, heterogeneous and free of charge for universities.Internet was mostly limited to the US government and American universities until 1993 when the American vice-president Al GORE announced the beginning of the generalization of the Internet. In 1994, the American president Bill CLINTON ordered to take away the administration of the net from the NSF. It was the first explosion of Internet.
Description of the network

Presently, the Internet is an interconnection of thousands different networks. These networks are heterogeneous but they use the same protocol (TCP/IP). The main task of the network is to transport data and not to perform computation with them. Machines connected to the Internet are identified by their IP address. These machines can also be known by a name which is given by a name server. This name server contains a corresponding table between names and addresses. We can say that there are no physical boundaries in the Internet. It works in the cyberspace.There are four major services offered by the Internet:
E-Mail
This service is the most popular. It allows people to exchange mail. We can say that it is similar to the telephone and the traditional post-mail but they are quite different from each other. The price is the same, whether you send a mail to Casablanca or Tokyo. It's cheaper than traditional services. Moreover, messages sent by an e-mail can be either a text, binary file or pictures. We can imagine a lot of situation where sending an e-mail is very useful. A student could get his papers corrected by a professor from another countries just by sending them as e-mail. An other good example is that the survey done in the frame of this study was put in the net and the answers was sent in e-mails, so we were able to do study on a sample of Internet users from around the world as well as a sample of non Internet users. More than that, each one can check his mail from any computer connected to the net. He doesn't have to check his mailbox at home or stay at home to receive his telephone calls.
News
Sometimes you want to ask a question concerning a particular subject and there no special person who can answer you. In the Internet you can just ask it in a newsgroup and many of the subscribers can give you a beneficial answer. There are also discussions you can take part in for work, enjoyment or exchanging points of view. You can initiate a newsgroup discussing a certain subject you are interested in.The newsgroups are well organized : each newsgroup deals with a particular subject. All the discussions are going on simultaneously. The Internet presently offers more than ten thousand discussion groups, comprising many millions of words per day.
The World Wide Web (WWW)
The World Wide Web made the real explosion of the Internet. It was a revolution in the cyberspace. The WWW is a distributed multimedia network. It allows distribution of text, sounds and pictures. All this information is interlinked and relocated : while consulting a web page, you don't have to know where the information site is. What makes it more interesting is that each user can put his own pages in the Internet and make them known to millions of other users. WWW servers use hypertext links to join pieces of information in separate HTML-based (HyperText Markup Language) documents located either at the same or at disparate sites. The links are maintained using URLs (uniform Resource Locators), a standard way of coding the locations of HTML documents. Web pages are loosely analogous to chapters in a book. Just by pointing and clicking a highlighted item, you can establish an automatic link to another site. Each page can contain links to several other places not necessarily located in the place. The WWW includes now the File Transfer Protocol service which lets you download files to your computer if you don't have enough time to consult them on a remote system. It allows you to save connection time and make a copy of these files for yourself. You can also find free software that might be useful for you.
Some cyber behaviors

As described the internet is a great medium for gathering and spreading information. Nevertheless, an estimated 80% of all users are looking for social interaction rather than information. Thus besides its technical facets, the Internet has become a new kind of social space where naturally, new behaviors dawn. Through E-mail and newsgroups "Internet brings together people with mutual interest who for reasons ranging from geography to social and income disparity would otherwise never had met" says C. YBARRA, an anthropologist Ph.D. candidate at Stanford university. Furthermore, as experienced many people have found they can confess to each other things they never told to anyone. These virtual friendships can lead to strong lifelong relationships and even marriage. In this quest for companionship and communality, most net users introduce themselves as the person they wish they could be. The author of Love over the wires, P. Borsook calls this "selective lying by omission". In several cases, net users radically change their personality and take an invented one. That might be interesting in the way of experiencing and understanding personalities and life-styles that we could never try in real life. On the other hand it becomes dangerous in the case of a cyberholic that really likes his brand new personality and takes out his mask only for having lunch. In general, cyberholics are persons addicted to cyberspace, who spend most their time surfing the net, chatting, posting at newsgroups and once tired, playing computer games. The most famous cyberholics are geeks who form their own society of "gamers, ravers ,science fiction fans, punks, perverts, programmers, nerds, subgenie and trekkies". They are a literate, hyperinformed underground and rather open-minded with regards to queer life-styles.
Advantages of the Internet

Since it was created, Internet has become a fast and reliable data transmission network. The World Wide Web, which is one of the main services offered by Internet, is a real information system.. What's very important is that there are more than 4 million sites connected through the world and you can imagine the abundance and diversity of information in these machines. Since you are connected to the net, you can consider that all this information is put at your disposal. You can either read your favorite magazine or read the latest news about your favorite star in the cinema. With Internet, information is everywhere. Moreover, Moroccan students, the future decision-makers of the country, need to have the best formation during their studies. Morocco is still a developing country. So, we must take advantage from developed countries teachers. Nevertheless, eminent professors are usually busy and it's very difficult to call them. With the Internet, it's possible to attend their classes by distant-teaching wherever they are. If we look at the history of the Internet, the second step of its development was its migration to universities. The researchers find it very useful to exchange their research results. Nowadays and after the generalization of the Internet, this network is still the efficient way to communicate information in order to develop scientific research. Moroccan researchers might take advantage from this possibility to deal with their colleagues inside and outside the country, exchange points of view, participate to common projects and be up-to-date with the latest research results. The Internet is the only way to be at the same level as developed countries at least informationwise. And it would maybe limit the brain exude.Another interesting application for us might be publication. Indeed, the major problem of publication in Morocco is the high cost of printing and distributing and the high risk of financial failure specially for specialized ones. The Internet make it possible to create a magazine (a simple web page ) with few means and having a high presentation quality equal to great magazine one. Besides, with the newsgroups everyone can participate to "international" discussions where he will learn from others and propose his points of view, make known and defend his culture, and thus enrich the universal culture. Also, we can (should ) animate thematic discussions concerning our local problems. Such debates between persons sharing the same interests can only be serious and thus beneficial for everyone. The points named above are not exhaustive and we can find a great number of applications limited only by our imagination. And one can hardly deny how much these applications would be positive for our culture and would enhance our intellectual level. More communication means more information exchange between people, more creative ideas and more added value to our culture. Furthermore, as K. HASSAN said "... greater communication between people always leads to a probability of greater economic interaction...". Indeed, through communication we discover new ideas and new needs of the market that can be exploited. Besides, with more than 45 millions of subscribers, the Internet constitute an important potential market that we should grab. What makes it more interesting is the quasi-charge-free advertisement possibilities (Arabia server proposes advertisement possibilities for $100/page/year) and the reduction of distribution charges. So, companies can take a big benefits from using the Internet. For example, their competitivity in the market can really be increased by building virtual shops and profiting from the low cost production in our country. The Internet can be used as medium to sell and buy several kinds of products. A virtual shop in an interactive area where you do your shopping. You don't need any longer to go to shops and check for new arrivals to choose what you need. From any machine connected to the net you can buy or order what you see just by filling an order form which contains your name, address and credit card number. This initiative can be very interesting for Moroccan handicraft tradesmen. They can sell their products which are relatively cheap to foreign countries and improve their trade.In general, any kind of production that doesn't need big means as for services or software production -or that is specific to Morocco can be a successful business for us on the Internet. Here is another application. The Moroccan economy counts heavily on its tourist activity. Morocco is in competition with other countries in this fields, specially by Mediterranean countries. Advertising can be a solution to improve tourism in Morocco, but it costs too much and it is not sufficient. It is difficult and expensive to make an advertisement and to spread it through the world. With the Internet, this task seems to be easy and free of charges. Since the infrastructure exists, we can just develop special web pages showing beautiful landscapes and the Moroccan hospitality and put them into a server. In that way, we can make money with a minimum of investment. However, we should be conscious of the Internet specificities and not do advertisement as we used to for traditional mass-media. In fact, the interaction in Internet makes it possible to the user to control and choose what he is watching :by one click of the mouse, and the ad message is gone. Thus, it implies new marketing techniques for this new medium. In the US, as J. CASTRO mentions it "...advertisers are developing interactive advertising that delivers the message in successive layers as part of a dialogue with the consumer. Once the individual shows interest in the initial pitch, the interactive advertiser moves to the next stage, which delivers a message designed specifically for that customer."
The other side of the coin

Unfortunately, as for most of the inventions the Internet may also be used for bad purposes, and on the other hand we do not have direct means to verify the truthfulness of the available information. If we take the example of virtual shops, each person can make his own virtual shop - which has never existed - and sell products. It's a very easy way to collect great number of credit card numbers. This is an example of a bad use of the Internet. There are also terrorism and money laundering networks developed in it. The telephone network is not safe so the Internet is used as reliable and secure support of communication since messages can be encrypted. It can not be controlled by government unless the correspondence confidentiality will be infringed.The Internet can also have a bad influence on youth and culture. there are a lot of webservers and newsgroups dealing with sexuality, pornography and violence. " How can we prevent our children from connecting to these kind of sites? " is now a frequent question in the US that sustains debates and fears among the citizens.
A survey of attitudes about the Internet

To identify more precisely the benefits and the problems that can occur the coming of Internet to Morocco, a survey was done and distributed to two samples : a sample of Internet users and another of non Internet users.The survey (only questions 10,11 and 13 )was put into Moroccan web pages so that Moroccan netsurfers could answer it. Other questions don't need to be asked for this sample because all Internet users are familiar with the Internet and they all use computers.
Some statistics about the whole sample:


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