Ramadan In Morocco: The Morality Police
- MATT SCHUMANN
- 08/05/12
Muslims around the World are celebrating the month of Ramadan, spending their days abstaining from eating and drinking and focusing on nurturing their spiritual connection to God.
Given the spirit of this time, it's not surprising to find this story, by the news site hespress, describing a recent police operation in Casablanca to shut down hookah bars in Morocco's largest city. In the current environment, an operation like this bolsters the ruling Islamist Party for Justice and Development's commitment to upholding public morality.
Police in Casablanca, as part of a growing campaign against hookah bars during Ramadan, finally carried out raids on a number of cafes that provide sheesha to their customers, leading to the arrest of their clients, many of them female, for questioning.
The cafes' owners deny setting up their establishments up as hookah bars and places for customers to behave immorally, as some claim. An official in Casablanca's city council believes that the police operation targeting hookah bars has been following orders from the federal and regional governments. According to the official, the campaign was not aimed merely at smoking but other activities that are potentially harmful to public morality and health as well.
"Tom and Jerry"
The crackdown, which lasted until last Thursday, targeted 12 cafes. The raids and arrests of sheesha smokers, many of them underage girls, were considered justified, as was the seizure of dozens of water pipes and other sheesha related paraphernalia.
The recent operations focused on sources providing water pipes, which are produced outside of Morocco. If a cafe's owner was unable to produce the paperwork indicating that his water pipes were imported legally, it meant that his materials were smuggled, which is subject to punishment under Moroccan laws pertaining to contraband goods.
Hamouda, a cafe manager in Sale, said in statements that many cafes provide sheesha, among their regular fare, to customers who want it. He continued, saying that anyone who denies sheesha's prevalence is lying to himself, before adding that at times police turn a blind eye to sheesha, while at others they organize crackdowns.
Hamouda continued, saying that cafe owners who serve sheesha do not put the water pipes in the front of their shops so as to not 'disturb' police. Rather they serve smokers discreetly, in private areas far from the public gaze and with respect to the public conscious and social customs. In describing the relationship between cafe owners and the police he said that it resembles the cartoon "Tom and Jerry".
Minors and Health Risks
Mostafa Al-Haya, a member of Casablanca's city council and the fifth representative of the city's major, commented on the hookah bar crackdown saying, that though the law banning sheesha smoking was approved by parliament years ago, it's remained unenforced. He emphasized the necessity of truly enforcing the law.
Al-Haya explained, in statements to Hespress over the telephone, that the police operations against sheesha are responding to federal and regional commands for Casablanca, indicating that authorities are relying on such orders to organize campaigns to curb the spread of hookah bars.
Al-Haya emphasized that the problem is not limited to sheesha in itself, but rather that these cafes in their nature lead underage girls - legal minors - to smoke, which increases the probability of physical and sexual assaults against them or their solicitation to participate in other illegal activities.
The speaker went on to say that the health risks posed by smoking sheesha also factored into these operations' rationale. He pointed to Casablanca's Moulay Rashid district which witnessed a notable rise in the numbers of tuberculosis cases, given the disease's potential to affect sheesha smokers who share water pipes without taking the necessary precautions.
Despite the stated reasons behind the crackdown, an operation like this has only one real purpose: favorable publicity for the ruling Justice and Development Party.
Considering growing criticisms against Morocco's Islamist government for its inability to combat the country's economic woes while pursuing unpopular policies like lowering the gasoline subsidy and reversing the country's historic commitment to tuition-free higher education, an operation like this, despite its small scale, could bolster the party's support among social conservatives.
Mr. Hamouda, quoted, is entirely correct in pointing out the government's double standard in treating sheesha. There are many cafes that serve sheesha in Morocco, discreetly, and targeting these 12 in Casablanca is pretty arbitrary. But this describes much of law enforcement in Morocco; laws are applied selectively and at the whims of the government. The PJD has promised to change this aspect of Morocco's political/legal culture, and while they still have time to do so, many doubt their ability to do so.
What struck me most about this is the 'concern' for the well-being of these cafe's female patrons. While it's probably true that some shady dealings take place in hookah bars, such 'immorality' is not limited to cafes like these. Crackdowns like these do little in changing the culture of sexual harassment and exploitation that characterize Morocco's cafes, bars, and streets.
And while it's 'endearing' (and more than a little patronizing) to hear the government so concerned about these girls' well-being, a braver, more effective stance would be to target predominate male attitudes that condone the sexual exploitation of Moroccan women.
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Comments (10)
I know that you spent few years in Morocco and you perhaps know a thing or two about how things are in Morocco but let me correct you if I may. Those you call female patrons are actually prostitutes. Girls in Muslim Morocco are not supposed to be in Sheesha bars or coffeehouses. They are supposed to be working a decent job, or married and taking care of their children, or none of that but staying home taking care of their parents or any members of their families, instead poverty forced them to go out and sell their bodies to the lowest and highest bidder. The pretty ones get more customers and thus more money, the ugly ones or the not so pretty get very few customers and thus turn into female pimps.
Prostitution in Morocco is a huge problem that most like to sweep under the rug as if nothing is happening and that is the reason the authorities are seemingly going after the sheesha and not prostitution that is tarnishing the image of the country. Moroccans are very proud people and it kills them to see what is happening to the country and especially to their female compatriots. They know that those females could be their sisters, mothers, cousins, etc, They also know that poverty plays a big role in creating more prostitutes and they have a king running the country aided by his cronies not paying attention to these socials ills.
When I left Morocco, women were respected, you would not find a single girl in a bar except the bartender and few older experts in the field like chikhat (singers). The rest are all guys listening to Oum Kaltoun or abdel halim hafed and dreading their lonely lives.
Now things have changed for the worse, decades of neglect are coming to fruition. Prevalent poverty leading to prevalence of underage prostitution. Sad very sad!
Lastly, I think we should minimize blaming the PJD for everything bad that is happening in Morocco, those guys just got there and they are already taken as the scapegoat. it takes time to change things, why people cannot blame the king who's been in power for 13 years and his father before him for 40 years?
It simply does not make sense, besides the king is doing every possible to place obstacles for this new government, he has a shadow government working behind the scene making it impossible for the new Gov to make any progress.
In his last speech he challenged the new gov, well some see it as an insult not a challenge.
Mr. MATT SCHUMANN,
I know that you spent few years in Morocco and you perhaps know a thing or two about how things are in Morocco but let me correct you if I may. Those you call female patrons are actually prostitutes. Girls in Muslim Morocco are not supposed to be in Sheesha bars or coffeehouses. They are supposed to be working a decent job, or married and taking care of their children, or none of that but staying home taking care of their parents or any members of their families, instead poverty forced them to go out and sell their bodies to the lowest and highest bidder. The pretty ones get more customers and thus more money, the ugly ones or the not so pretty get very few customers and thus turn into female pimps.
Prostitution in Morocco is a huge problem that most like to sweep under the rug as if nothing is happening and that is the reason the authorities are seemingly going after the sheesha and not prostitution that is tarnishing the image of the country. Moroccans are very proud people and it kills them to see what is happening to the country and especially to their female compatriots. They know that those females could be their sisters, mothers, cousins, etc, They also know that poverty plays a big role in creating more prostitutes and they have a king running the country aided by his cronies not paying attention to these socials ills.
When I left Morocco, women were respected, you would not find a single girl in a bar except the bartender and few older experts in the field like chikhat (singers). The rest are all guys listening to Oum Kaltoun or abdel halim hafed and dreading their lonely lives.
Now things have changed for the worse, decades of neglect are coming to fruition. Prevalent poverty leading to prevalence of underage prostitution. Sad very sad!
Lastly, I think we should minimize blaming the PJD for everything bad that is happening in Morocco, those guys just got there and they are already taken as the scapegoat. it takes time to change things, why people cannot blame the king who's been in power for 13 years and his father before him for 40 years?
It simply does not make sense, besides the king is doing every possible to place obstacles for this new government, he has a shadow government working behind the scene making it impossible for the new Gov to make any progress.
In his last speech he challenged the new gov, well some see it as an insult not a challenge.
To Morcelli,
Unless you left Morocco in 1920's, there are thousands of normal girls that go to coffeehouses (like you call them). And in Morocco there are bars and bars. The bars you go to and find sheikhat and the lone female bartender/sex slave and the normal bar where only alcohol is provided and normal gals can be sen there without passing for a prostitute.I know it's hard to believe right? Women god forbid might get thirsty but you want them to stay parked outside like a horse in the farwest. You know what I am talking about. In Morocco we would have been in 2 different worlds, but even in the US we are still in 2 different worlds. It's all in the mind. Not even the states can change your mind and your thinking that a girl's job is to be home with the kids....Wake up.
And just an fyi, I left Morocco a while ago but i do go at least twice a year, more specifically to Casablanca. I know. Lucky me!
You can call me an old dated but to me a lady hanging out in a Moroccan bar smoking sheesha or drinking cheap red wine is nothing but a whore.
You can ask any Moroccan in this planet if he/she rather have his/her sister have decent job, a student, simply home bound for a while or be selling herself for 100-500 dirhams ( it depends) in a sheesha bar, I am sure that their answer will not be the latter.
That's the problem now, some think that hanging out in bars is some sort of progress.
People like you make me feel that I did the right thing to get out of the mess out there.
Society, men police organisations and the government all have a duty to stop this filth and to keep girls decent in schools or at work. This so called modernism isn't good for Morocco or our young girls!
Morocco is a land of Democray! in another word a Demo of Hypocrasy! Those bars are the modern brothels where men can pick up women, or young girls these days!
Society, men police organisations and the government all have a duty to stop this filth and to keep girls decent in schools or at work. This so called modernism isn't good for Morocco or our young girls!
My hat's off to you Jazmine
Please spare us your hypocrisy .All of you seem to prefer to live in a much freer society yet you want the population live under oppression .If this is not hypocrisy and selfishness then i don"t know what is .
How do you stop prostitution in Morocco? The king, bless his soul, is not bothered, in time H2 prostitution stayed secret, in the reign of M6 it is openly done, it is called giving liberty to women.
Now and then the Police exercise their powers and round few women, get their telephone numbers in case and then let them go. what else they are going to do. put on trial?
It is a disgrace that prostitution is so rampant and open in Morocco that the king should be ashamed of himself as he is answerable to the ALL MIGHTY.
But then prostitution is not only the problem, so is bribery, interest, poverty, sucking up to the West, nepotism, and many others I could mention.
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