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Education in Morocco

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     Education in Morocco has become more accessible, but there is still room for improvement, particularly in rural areas. In Morocco, most young children around ages 6-15 are required to have an education that is free, however, many girls in rural areas do not attend, and many students do not stay enrolled past the secondary level (Melissa W., 2022). Something that stood out to me while traveling through some of the rural areas in Morocco, was that many young children were walking or riding bikes by themselves to get to and from school, which may make it challenging for them to stay motivated to go to school every day. Children whose head of the house has a higher educational background are 2.9 times more likely to attend school than those who have a father who does not (Rahhou, 2023). Despite these challenges, the quality of education for those attending school and seeking higher education has progressed. The literacy rate for adults in Morocco has increased to 74% since Morocco gai
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Ability and Social Status

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          According to Focus Economics, the service industry accounts for 61% of Morocco’s GDP. (2021) This was something that I noticed while visiting Morocco: majority of the economy seems to be service/tourism focused. I say this recognizing that our view was very skewed toward the tourist experience, but this made me look further into their economy makeup. We shared many different experiences within the service sector during our two weeks and one trait I noticed most was the relationship between the person in the service role and who they were serving seemed to be very different than what I have experienced in the US. I recognized that there was a large degree of separation between the two parties when it came to connecting with one another. For example, our tour guide, Mahammad, while always being friendly and attending to our needs, he never pursued a deeper relationship with our group. He would eat separately at meals, did not share parts of his personal life unless asked, and n
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Gender Roles in Agriculture

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            Before we started our journey in Morocco, I was curious about the gender roles within Moroccan society and if women were treated equal to their male counterparts. I had heard rumors about the “Muslim way” of treating women as property to be owned; In all reality, I soon learned that is the farthest thing from the truth. I believe that most Americans have a very skewed view of Islamic cultures and their beliefs because of our limited view of radical groups loosely connected to the religion. While the common stereotype I had heard was proven to be vastly blown out of proportion, I did learn that the gender roles they live by are fairly different than our own.  When visiting ag operations across the country, I noticed Moroccan culture has specific roles for each gender within the labor/service sectors. Focusing on agriculture, I surprisingly found that about 57% of the agriculture labor force is female (1994). In these roles, they emphasize the way that women are “detail ori
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Social Status

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Social Status

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Social Status in Morocco: The Have's and The Have-Not's

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I have been fortunate enough to live in many places in the US, being both a have and a have not. In the spirit of vulnerability, when I was born, my family was on food stamps. My parents had the opportunity to work their way up the level of success they have strived for. That is not always the case in America, but I noticed just how much more difficult that is in Morocco. Driving around, you see people of all ages, genders, and abilities begging for money or food on the side of the streets. In that same drive, you also see Porsches driving alongside the bus as you drive past one of the seventeen palaces the King owns, as well as the other palaces foreign diplomats and royal families have.  The prevalence of begging is also something that cannot go unnoticed as it is everywhere in Morocco, whether is be coming up and asking for money or offering/forcing a product or service. It is not just to  tourists either. It is to anyone presumably wealthy. Something I found interesting was when we
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Ability or Social Status; Middle-Class

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  In Morocco, I noticed that there does not appear to be a distinct middle class. From passing through the diplomatic neighborhoods in Tangier to the wealthy neighborhoods in Marrakech, I did not see a lot of in-between living. First, in Morocco there is extreme poverty seen on the streets of cities where begging is very normal, even from children. Next, most of the cars seen are either very nice, luxury cars or older cars that have not aged well. However, after doing some outside research that stemmed from my observations, Morocco’s middle-class is actually growing and has been for over a decade while poverty rates are decreasing. “ Urban areas have also witnessed an expansion of the middle class. By 2019, the middle class represented two-thirds of the urban population, marking nearly a 15% increase compared to 2012” (Morocco World News, n.d.). Morocco has been experiencing increased levels of tourism over the last decade due to many influencers posting on social media about their a
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