Moroccan shame!

This hasn´t been my first journey to a middle eastern country and it hasn´t been the first time my Moroccan nationality has resulted in negative reactions when present in the region. According to middle eastern Arabs, Moroccans don´t speak Arabic, only French. They are too liberal, modernized, don´t know anything about the Arab world and their women are ´too loose´. At first I didn´t understand what they meant with the term ´loose´ towards Moroccan women, until two years ago someone told me Moroccan prostitutes are a well-known middle eastern problem. Due to their lack of contact with ´steady´ Moroccan women, my nationality has never been solid when visiting the middle east. Sometimes I am Dutch, then Tunisian, Algerian or whatever they think I am.. especially when it comes to taxi drivers: then I’m never Moroccan!

So even here, when I didn't think it would be an issue again, it actually was! Volunteers and students on campus pull an ugly face when they hear I’m Moroccan, speak about 'private matters' in my presence while thinking I don't understand one word. How could I if Moroccans only speak French? While conversing with many of the local volunteers and students, they were even more surprised when they found out I actually understood their private messages. Questions on Moroccans and my Dutch status unraveled after various conversations and some of their visions towards Moroccans actually started to change. At first it annoyed me: again? I thought. Even here..! But then it occurred to me. Many of them have been shut down from any form of contact with the outer world, no one had ever met a Moroccan, they never had the opportunity to travel and I guess news travels faster when bad.. So I decided that, aside from the many work we have to perform here, I have to explain something about Moroccans as well.

I don't see myself as a typical nationalist, of course I love Morocco, but then again I love many other countries as well. It's funny how culture works, you don't really seem to care about it, until someone endangers or criticizes it. Then it becomes yours and totally feel like defending it, this 'Moroccan culture' that every Moroccan fills in for him/herself..  I realized that if all Arabs keep on thinking in this line and there's no room for debate then we will never be able to unite and bring any change on Moroccans within the middle east. I know that I’m the only Moroccan present here and change in thoughts has a long road to go. Yet, bit by bit and starting here, these weeks in Palestine, I hope to make at least a minor change in their thoughts and hope the rest will pay itself forward..