Bad Press for Morocco

From what I understand, it's more economic than anything, but don't quote me on that. Tunisians are less likely to leech onto someone for a visa, it seems.

That said, I think that many accounts of women in Morocco are either exaggerated or the women did something to provoke it. I know that makes me sound like an apologist for disgusting behavior on the part of Moroccans, and I am ambivalent, having been on the receiving end of some nasty harassment, but a lot of tourists just don't seem to "get" the dress code. I actually saw a woman not to long ago with her head covered by a scarf, and her cleavage hanging out. And she wonders why she's being harassed...

I wrote out a long comment, but it wouldn't post.

Anyhow, I surmise that it's largely economic. From what I understand, Tunisians are much less likely to leech onto someone for a visa.

That said, I think that the experience of foreign women in Morocco is sometimes exaggerated and occasionally brought on by ignorance. It's never deserved, but I've seen plenty of behavior by foreign women that makes me wonder what they're looking for. That said, Moroccan men aren't helping matters.

You may be right. I looked up, for example, Morocco's Gross National Income per capita, and it is decidedly less than Tunisia's GNI per capita. So perhaps Tunisians are less desperate to get out.

Sorry that the spam filter munged your comment, but I think that I have got it back.

No worries. Are you able to find any statistics on Tunisia's unemployment rate as compared to Morocco's?

That aside, I know that the Tunisian education system is superior on the whole, that more Tunisians speak English, that English is introduced now in elementary or junior high school levels (English being a huge employment factor). Tunisia also seems to have a lower illiteracy rate.

Well, according to the CIA World Factbook, Morocco has an unemployment rate of 7.70 percent, although it rises to approximately 20 percent in urban areas. Tunisia's unemployment rate is actually higher overall, at 13.90 percent. Morocco also has a population that is three times as large as Tunisia's, and younger overall, which suggests larger absolute numbers of unemployed.

As far as literacy is concerned, you are definitely right: Morocco is 51.7 percent, and Tunisia is 74.3 percent. With respect to languages, Morocco and Tunisia both list Arabic and French, but only Morocco lists Berber dialects.

Morocco and Tunisia are in whole different categories. Look at Tunisia's rate of home ownership - it's incredible. That's a big part of the success of the Tunisian model and I bet one of the important contributing factors for why people are willing to accept dictatorship (ie in exchange for prosperity).

That being said, I often find the level of harassment by Moroccan men to be completely intolerable. I can assure you that my clothing is very appropriate but I am constantly harassed (and I am not a young chickie either). It is clear to me that this has nothing to do with looks -- I was often followed even when I was eight months pregnant. Harassment in Morocco is a huge problem and I wonder why women don't rise up in protest. I also think that women's organizations should do far more.

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation in July 2005 listed owner occupancy in Morocco as 46 percent and in Tunisia as 67 percent. See Egypt: Overview of the Housing Sector, Table 1, at p. 10. Other sources estimate Tunisian home ownership as being as high as 80 percent. In the United States, the figure is 65 percent.

Man, I think I may have found a research topic!

@ Maryam - I really agree that it's out of hand. I often find myself, inexplicably, advising tourists that it's not a big problem (and in terms of safety, I don't believe it is), but I am a "young chickie" and since no one bothers to look at my wedding ring, I do get a lot of it. I've just gotten accustomed to the death stare.

Although if it's any consolation, my mother-in-law, who wears hijab and a djellaba (albeit a very fashionable one) gets nearly as much harassment as I do when she walks alone to work. And she's old enough to be my mother!

BO18 (a Moroccan blogger who lives in London) just wrote up a nice post about this, perhaps coincidentally:

bo18.blogspot.com

I think, about Tunisia, antiseptic is right. Sometimes it seems from our Tunisian blogger friends that the whole country is in lockdown. And it's true that the regime has decided it can profit mainly from tourism and by making itself attractive to foreign investment.

Morocco is larger and more diverse, but there are still areas of Morocco such as Agadir where the same strategy applies. And probably a decent number of tourists to Morocco never leave their prearranged route of hotels, beaches and bused-in visits to historic monuments.

I think the anticepticization of Morocco doesn't work partly because of the Moroccan spirit being irrepressible, partly because the country is simply too big to control all of it to that degree, and partly due to the contradictions between that policy and the openness required to encourage 1o million tourists a year, not all of whom will stand for such a controlled experience.

We met a Moroccan man in Spain, where he was running an internet cafe. My wife took the trouble to pass the time of day, ask why he come to live in Spain, etc. This, of course, meant she was available for sex, even though she was married and almost twice his age. His approach was crude. Moroccan men have no morals and no respect for anyone.
I would not go to Morocco if I was paid a large amount of money.