Beni-Mellal, Morocco— While Islam still plays in Morocco a critical role in people’s life, with the genesis globalization, there has been a fathomable tendency nowadays to depart from Islamic traditions by recklessly espousing western ethics and value system. In this framework, the moral, social and ideological effects of globalization can be traced in myriad instances including, inter alia, the destabilization of the patriarchal relationship between men and women as well as revolutionizing the traditional role of the family along with moral bankruptcy among teenagers.
Today, Women in Morocco, being influenced and hypnotized by western popular culture through western media, are increasingly participating and competing with men in decision-making processes and unprecedentedly permeating what was beforehand considered men’s domains. This is by no means implying that it is a dangerous twist, but it is just a symbolic pattern that shows evidently how the Moroccan society is witnessing an inexorable transformation by coming out of its conservative leather and cloak to embrace modernity and sweep up westernization. Despite the fact that this process of woman “liberation” from the power and shackles of patriarchy – as many feminist activists would prefer to call it- seems rather positive, still this patriarchal structure, upon which the Moroccan society has long rested, constitute a fundamental characteristic of Moroccan culture and therefore of Moroccan identity. In this guise, empowering women will undeniably lead to a kind of fracture in the patriarchal society and spark off countles complications that are worth considering if a radical and feasible change is to be attained.
Moreover, moral bankruptcy seems as well another by-product of adopting westernization. Moral bankruptcy shows up bluntly in the call to legitimize and legalize homosexuality[1]. Many activists in Morocco have been organizing campaigns on social media and protestations in Moroccan streets, particularly in Casablanca and Rabat, in an a attempt to sanctify and re-claim the rights of homosexuals. This is quite dangerous, and indicates a severe transformation towards Western moral values and thus towards moral bankruptcy, something the west is notoriously famous for.
Besides the liberation of women and the call for homosexuality, the Moroccan streets have lost their holiness and conservative aura as we witness many instances of public kissing, something relatively new in Moroccan society. Furthermore, Moroccan teenagers, by internalizing western popular culture introduced via Hollywood, are progressively becoming morally bankrupt and the famous event known as “the kiss of Nador,” which triggered off a great stir in the media all over the world is undeniably a powerful illustration.
We don’t really know whereto this country, which is stumbling over and suffering from confusion and contradiction, is heading. We don’t really know if we can believe in the idea of freedom anymore simply because no one seems to apprehend that freedom has shackles and that one’s freedom stops when someone else’ s is beginning . This is something we learnt in primary school yet recently we begin to hear a lot about people eating publicly in Ramadan without respecting Muslims. We begin to hear also about unprecedented protests and unfamiliar calls in Moroccan streets and social media for atheism, homosexuality, right for public kissing, secularism, especially from some groups and activists who call themselves “enlightened “ and “modern Muslims”. This is pretty ironic and risky. Decades ago, talking about such things was akin to blasphemy and considered thus as taboo things and red lines, the transgression of which may lead to incarceration at best. Now every seeking-attention activist, gay, atheist, incompetent and westernized individuals decide to decisively drift away from Islam so as to be considered ENLIGHTENED and as a means of getting attention and pleasing the west .
In short, the only way to preserve our society from this moral bankruptcy and ideological transformations, I believe, is to go back to our Islamic traditions and reconcile ourselves with our traditional values. Imitating the west and adopting its morlity as well as value system will only bring about demolition and destabilization of our relatively conservative society.
[1] It’s all about perspective ,I used the phrase moral bankruptcy to refer to homosexuality from an Islamic perspective , but from another perspective, some would like to call it freedom, what matters is that it is an unprecedented moral change that is taking place in Morocco.
By Nouh Anajjar.
