Friday, September 17, 2021

Ella Banka

Stranded in Morocco, Syrians join African migrants in storming Europe’s door

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This story was published by the Christian Science Monitor on February 28, 2014.

By ELLA BANKA

Abdel Karim is a boy without a country. His parents, Adel and Alia Alkhalaf, are Syrian asylum seekers who entered Morocco without visas, and their legal limbo has left their youngest son, born six months ago in Morocco, without citizenship anywhere.

“We live day by day,” murmurs 29-year-old Adel. The couple has three children: Abdel Karim, with his wide, toothless, sweet smile; Mustafa, an eight-year-old with olive green eyes; and Sileen, a two-year-old troublemaker.

Fatna Aya Bakes Bread

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Break of dawn in the Sbaa Rouadi Commune—less than fifteen minutes away from the bustling city life of Fes, Morocco. It is cold, dark outside, and

Fatna Aya is in her barren cement-walled kitchen, kneading dough for bread. This is Fatna at dawn every day; it is the rhythm and repetition of her rural life.

Prayer; dough; washing dishes from the previous day. Milking the cow; baking the bread; serving breakfast—mint tea and warm hobz.

Lunch is served with hobz.

Dinner is served with hobz.

Hobz is often used as a utensil when there are none; you can dip it in lubia and scoop the beans with ease.

Spicy Business

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by ELLA BANKA

To sit around a table and share a tajine with a Moroccan family is to take a journey through generations of gatherings, festivities and recipes. The secret to such rich, sumptuous dishes is the oodles of spices and dried herbs that every woman hoards in her kitchen cupboards.

“Nothing tastes better than Moroccan cuisine,” declares Mohammed Hmidi, a young man who works at a nameless spice store in the souk. For over 70 years, his family has proudly served the community in the old medina of Rabat. Western products line the stalls of the open-air market while the essence of traditional Maghreb lingers in the pungent aroma wafting through the air; shawarma…snails…sheep’s head.

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