When you walk around the streets of Fes or Marrakech, you don’t see as many woman as men. When you do see woman, they’re usually covered from head to toe, sometimes so much as to only see their eyes peering through colourful scarves. It’s a conservative Muslim society, where from the outside woman don’t seem to have as many rights as men. It is surprising when you see tourists walking around in short shorts and tiny vests, complaining about the attention the men give them – I wonder what they expected. As a general rule, men in Morocco are much more conservative than their Western counterparts, and as such, you should dress accordingly.
So my travel friend and I decided to make a conscious effort to cover up, to be respectful of the locals so that we could command respect ourselves. We tried, despite sweltering temperatures sometimes exceeding 48 degrees, to keep from ankle to wrist covered in fabric. Still the attention came, but I think it was muted by our efforts. Rarely annoying, except one pesky ass-grab, we began to see the humor in the oddly worded “compliments” that were being thrown at us. Some highlights include:
Take care for your eyes
You smell good and have a good heart, so a good price for you
You have a Moroccan face
Five thousand camels for you
You are a lovely size
Best of the best
My absolute favourite:
I can’t give you a camel, but I’ll give you my heart.
Damn. I was really hoping for a camel, or two.
I think if you look on the bright side of the attention it’s absolutely hilarious. What’s the funniest thing you’ve been called overseas? In Thailand I was always called Marmite (a New Zealand/Australian breakfast spread)
