Wednesday, October 28, 2020

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Beyond the Lens of a Moroccan Chef

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By Jessica Morris

Photographs by Rachel Woolf

RABAT, Morocco – “Everything in our lives needs creativity!” Youssef Alouan, 47, a chef from Café Restaurant Bab Laalou exclaimed as the corners of his eyes started to crinkle.

He tilted his white bandana-wrapped head, lifted a calloused hand and laughed, “Everything! Even when I make eggs, I use creativity.”

Alouan is a chef, manager and waiter at one of the many cafés on the bustling streets of the capital of Morocco. On Fridays, he garnishes vegetables on a traditional dish of couscous into a colorful design.

Challenging Illiteracy in Morocco, a Bookseller Pursues Paradise

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By Hannah Rehak

Photographs by Will Matsuda

RABAT, Morocco – Magazines spill out onto a busy street and blue painted shutters stretch open, exposing Aziz Muhammed sitting on a dusty pillow. As always, he is reading, eyes focused on an orange-bound book, spectacles resting on his prominent nose. Though tucked away behind the work of hundreds of authors, Muhammed is known throughout the medina, the oldest part of Rabat, for his unique aesthetic. He is a 66-year-old bouquiniste, a proud bookseller, in a country with an adult literacy rate of approximately 67 percent.

Zineb Belmkaddem – Connecting the Battles for Human Rights

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By: SUSAN SKAZA

RABAT, Morocco – Zineb Belmkaddem, 29, cynically credits the government for her newest job as an English teacher at Euromediterranean University of Fez, a recently established university in Morocco.

“I know the government has something to do with this job,” she said. “They want me off the street. I mean, off everything. My boss told me.”

Due to her outspoken criticism of the local regime, Belmkaddem says the government is trying to restrain her by keeping her busy at the university. In a country where freedom of expression is limited, this Muslim feminist is one of the last prominent human rights activists left in Morocco.

A Disciplined Fighter Knocks Open Narrow Assumptions about Islam

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RABAT, Morocco – Saturday, February 8, 2014, every sip of coffee went interrupted by the religious beliefs flowing endlessly from Mohamed Tehry’s mouth. 26-year-old Tehry is retired from full contact fighting and from working construction, so his carefully articulated religious words demonstrate his talent for being both precise and relentless all at the same time. The coffee glass appeared minuscule within his thick, weathered grip, and Tehry sat tall with the afternoon sun seeping softly into the many intricacies of his dark brown eyes. His smile expanded along with his pride, as strong religious conversation journeyed from his heart to his lips.

A Kasala’s Warmth

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By FATIMA SUGAPONG

RABAT, Morocco- Fatima Bamu sits down very slowly, exhausted after an eleven hour workday. Her wrinkled, leathery brown hands, worn from 40 years of working in a public bath house known to the Rabat citizens as the hammam, rested on her lap. She closed her eyes as she kept her prayers close to the ring of her lips.

Everyone in the room respected her privacy. She rocked in a small back-and-forth motion in her tan djelleba, a piece of traditional Moroccan clothing, and her scarf.

“I do my job because I don’t have any other way to live,” Bamu said.

Café El-Griny

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By Lauren Kopchik

Photographs by Rachel Woolf

RABAT, Morocco — On a lazy Sunday afternoon, El-Ayadi El-Griny sits in a dimly lit garage watching the people of Rabat stroll along Lalou Avenue. They walk past hole-in-the-wall shops like his that surround the old medina marketplace, with its narrow streets and close-knit neighborhoods, without casting a second glance.

El-Griny, 39, makes a comfortable seat using plastic bags filled with the only product he sells: wool. It surrounds him, with overstuffed bags filling the corners of his shop and excess white and blue fabric spilling onto the floor.  

Snoopy, A Graduate From Morocco’s Only Circus School

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By VICTOR MASSARI

RABAT, Morocco – A tall man clutching a handbag filled with gold fractures of an old brass instrument enters downtown Rabat. His shaggy curls cascade from the back of his baseball cap as he reaches into his bag to pull out metal rings, a voice-looping machine, an iPad, an amplifer, and an endless line of cables. This is Rabat’s own local street performer, Badr “Snoopy” Houtar, 27.

“My mother always said I give life to objects,” said Houtar. “Where some people see just a plastic bag, I see a world of fun.”

Houtar, 27, stopped pursuing a degree in architecture four years ago to enroll in the only circus school in all of Morocco.

Shattering Stereotypes By Breaking Waves

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By ELISE CAMPBELL

RABAT, Morocco – “My favorite color is black, like my eyes,” Oumaima Erhali, 17, said with a smile as she drew in the sand with her untied, muddy skate shoes. As the ocean breeze tickled her face, she tightened the strings that held a black hood over her head and slid a shell into the cargo pocket of her Hawaiian-printed board shorts.

Erhali doesn’t cook with her family, because she’s too busy spicing up her shoes with sand. She also doesn’t wear a hijab, even though she’s a dedicated Muslim.

In Morocco, Snail Soup Warms the Medina

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By WILL MATSUDA

RABAT, Morocco – A mild winter lingers in Morocco and in the streets of the old medinas, locals can be found huddling around steaming vats of snail soup. The soup is called “bebouch” in Morocco’s Arabic dialect. The soup is so popular that Abderrahim Idriss has been making a living off of selling bebouch for 25 years.

Idriss owns a snail soup stall on one of the main streets in the old medina of Rabat. As the medina closed down for the night and the last shoppers hurried home, he sipped his batch.

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