Featured Archives - REPORTING MOROCCO

Next generation of Moroccan golfers breaks stereotypes

September 9, 2019September 9, 2019 sysadmin 0 Comments

Above: Young golfers competing in Morocco Srixon Junior Tour championships practice on the putting green at Mogador Golf Course. By 2020, half of all licensed golfers are expected to be juniors. (Photo by Katie Koontz)

by Katie Koontz

ESSAOUIRA, Morocco – One dusty dirt road separates the small village of Diabat from Mogador Golf Course. Diabat is made up of a string of homes where everyone knows each other. Kids in white uniforms run down the hill to the schoolhouse, goats wander between buildings, and dogs chase the occasional car down the unpaved road.

Culture Featured

A Young Woman’s Mission to Integrate Creativity into Schools

March 1, 2019August 20, 2019 sysadmin 0 Comments arts, Connect, Marya Joudani, Profile

By Zoe Buchli

Marya Joudani, 24, is enthusiastic about integrating art into education This stems mainly from her time at Connect Institute, where she was a student for two years and currently works as a coordinator.

“It’s only when I joined Connect Institute that I started to notice the differences between the way school is today and the way it should be,” she said.

Nestled in a growing housing development in Agadir, a beach town in southern Morocco, Connect is housed in a large, modern building. The school provides “alternative higher education” and admits students based on their abilities, not their degrees or grades so far.

Featured

Covering social protests, a new red line for journalism

February 24, 2019February 25, 2019 sysadmin 0 Comments

By Sam Metivier

CASABLANCA — In July 2017, Omar Radi traveled to al-Hoceima to film a documentary on al-Hirak al-Shaabi (The Popular Movement), but he never got that chance. Like dozens of journalists, the 32-year-old freelancer was arrested for attempting to cover the story that had captured the attention of all Morocco.

Radi was arrested for ‘public intoxication’ after drinking a beer at a restaurant after his eight-hour drive from Casablanca. Radi says he wasn’t drunk but that the police had monitored him waiting for him to do anything vaguely illegal, per their orders from state authorities.

Alexandria Saurman Culture Featured Women Youth

Footloose but not fancy free: Dancing in Morocco

December 1, 2018December 1, 2018 sysadmin 0 Comments

By Alexis Miller. Photos by Alexandria Saurman

Rabat — “I don’t get paid for this and I don’t think I would want to be…,” Hajar Regragui says while unlocking the door to the dance studio at International University of Rabat (UIR). She’s about to teach 60 college students choreographed dance routines in various styles: Hip-hop, African inspired dance, and Salsa. The course lasts three hours and is completely a labor of love. She seems to look happiest when drenched in sweat.

Hajar Regragui is a 21-year-old political science and international relations student at UIR, but she introduced herself to me first and foremost as a dancer and told me about her favorite spots in Casablanca for dancing.

Culture Featured Religion

Being a (Secret) Atheist in a Country Full of Faith

November 22, 2018November 22, 2018 sysadmin 0 Comments

RABAT–A café on the hem of Rabat’s medina basks in its atmosphere of quiet anonymity. This suits Mohamed Abdallah, a 27-year-old translator born and raised a few short alley twists away. He shifts a bit uneasily in his sun-drenched seat by the window, his sharp brown eyes scanning the space for possible eavesdroppers.

“I hope no one here speaks English,” Abdallah says apprehensively. Though the small cafe is sparsely populated, its patrons preoccupied and noises soft, the conversation that is about to ensue makes him uneasy. Abdallah is an atheist, a belief that carries heavy implications in a country built on Islam.

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Reporting Morocco is produced by U.S. college and university students on an SIT Study Abroad program in Morocco: Field Studies in Journalism and New Media. They are mentored by veteran journalists from The New York Times, The Associated Press, and Round Earth Media in a program applying technology and global consciousness to produce high-impact journalism on vital social issues.

Reporting Morocco strives to be a reliable resource for news and information about Morocco.

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A pioneer in experiential, field-based study abroad, SIT (founded as the School for International Training) provides more than 60 semester and summer programs for undergraduate students in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as comparative programs in multiple locations.