• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
REPORTING MOROCCO REPORTING MOROCCO
REPORTING MOROCCO REPORTING MOROCCO
  • Home
  • Nation
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Environment
    • Education
  • Art & Culture
    • Food
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
  • Religion
  • Health & Science
    • Public Health
  • Our Student Journalists
    • Spring 2020
      • Anna Mitchell
      • Antonia Knox
      • Aviva Rosenberg
      • Corrine Schmaedeke
      • Elijah McKee
      • Gari De Ramos
      • Harrison Daley
      • Jessica Blough
      • Kathryn Jefferson
      • Marlon Hyde
      • Nejra Kravic
      • Solaine Carter
    • In Other Media
  • Alumni
    • Fall 2019
      • Rachel Berets
      • Chloe Chaobal
      • Ella Feldman
      • Ryley Graham
      • Georgia Knoles
      • Patrick Linehan
      • Mimi Miyamoto
      • Stella Shi
      • Bella Staal
      • N’Kaela Webster
      • Ellie Zimmerman
    • Spring 2019
      • Alexis Broadnax
      • Amelia Keesler
      • Anton Delgado
      • Austin Corona
      • Catherine Brewer
      • Chris Dillon
      • Giulia Villanueva
      • Lauren Goldfarb
      • Lexi Reich
      • Mac Dressman
      • Malaya Nordyke
      • Margaret Dols
      • Mary Bernard
      • Maya London-Southern
      • Michelle Li
      • Shelby Kluver
      • Stephen Higgins
      • Viviana Prado-Núñez
    • Fall 2018
      • Alexandria Saurman
      • Alexis Miller
      • Brionne Frazier
      • Jabari Richardson
      • Jordyn Congelli
      • Kylie Wilder
      • Megan O’Herron
      • Sam Metivier
      • Zoe Buchli
    • Spring 2018
      • Alyssa Kann
      • Anna Bongardino
      • Carrie Boike
      • Emily Vega
      • Erika Riley
      • Hadley Stack
      • Joseph Held
      • Matthew McDermott
      • Molly Keisman
      • Najah Mateen
      • Olivia Lewis
      • Ryan Terhune
    • Fall 2017
      • Andrew Seger
      • Claire Franksen
      • Clara Neill
      • Jeanette Lam
      • Justin Cates
      • Katie Koontz
      • Lara Korte
      • Lars Brady
      • Lars Brady
      • Livvy Fore
      • Olivia Kohn
      • Rita Carmona
      • Sophie Nunnally
      • Sophie Pollock
    • Spring 2017
      • Allie Merola
      • Anisha Wilson
      • Connor Shannon
      • David Fuchs
      • Deborah Katsuva
      • Evan Popp
      • Katharine Milbradt
      • Kesley Cochran
      • Mary Chen
      • Mary Mathis
      • Max Jodoin
      • Micaela Harris
      • Perry DeMarche
      • Regan Reeck
      • Sophie Alexander
      • Tamara Matheson
      • Zakiyyah Maryam
    • Fall 2016
      • Celia Heudebourg
      • DeJah Ault
      • Dewborah Honore
      • Jessica Lartigue
      • Margaret Britton-Mehlisch
      • Phoebe Osterhout
      • Regan Reek
      • Shirley Chan
      • Sonia Mohammadzadah
      • Taylor Burris
    • Spring 2016
      • Amelia Palacios
      • Becca Dewosky
      • Cannon Sullivan
      • Danielle Douglas
      • Daria Etezadi
      • Elaina Zachos
      • Julia Cabrera
      • Kainoelani Lee
      • Kelsey Hanson
      • Mackenzie Ritter
      • Madeline Hughes
      • Molly Mulroy
      • Oly Zayac
      • Savin Mattozzi
      • Shiloh Frederick
      • Viviane Feldman
      • Wesley Lickus
    • Fall 2015
      • Allegra Thomas
      • Christopher Lowell
      • Darren Spirk
      • Hannah Steinkopf-Frank
      • Jennifer Kwon
      • Kayla Dwyer
      • Mitchell McCluskey
      • Nora Kipniss
      • Rob Dozier
      • Rob Dozier
      • Simneon Lancaster
      • Trey Strange
    • Spring 2015
      • Ben Bartenstein
      • Brennan Weiss
      • Emma Sikora Paulus
      • Evan Verploegh
      • Evin Billington
      • Hayden Crowell
      • Julia Barstow
      • Julia Levine
      • Kacie Graves
      • Kiannah Sepeda-Miller
      • La’akea Kaufman
      • Mackenzie Martin
      • Mary Byrne
      • Paris Alston
      • Samantha Weiss
      • Sofie Tapia
      • William Matsuda
    • 2014 Students
    • 2013 Students

Challenging Illiteracy in Morocco, a Bookseller Pursues Paradise

March 25, 2014 By Hannah Rehak

Aziz Mohammad, 66, has owned his bookshop in Rabat’s medina for over 50 years, since he was 15. He has handpicked some 4,000 titles from different neighborhoods around Rabat.
Aziz Mohammad, 66, has owned his bookshop in Rabat’s medina for over 50 years, since he was 15. He has handpicked some 4,000 titles from different neighborhoods around Rabat.

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.

Mohammad’s collection is vast, creeping up the walls of his tiny shop and spilling out onto the street. He carries texts in Arabic, French, and with a little bit of digging, Soviet mechanical engineering books from the 1940s can be found hiding in the stacks.

Despite low literacy rates, Muhammed has successfully managed to own his shop for more than 50 years. After being orphaned at the age of six, Muhammed was only able to pay for school until the age of 15. It was that same year, 1964, that he opened his bookshop. As his newly independent country went through a transitional period, he started supporting himself by touring Rabat’s distinct neighborhoods in search of books – new and old – to sell on Rue Muhammed V.

“I go to all the neighborhoods, l’Ocean, Agdal, Challel,” he said, embracing the literature each neighborhood has to offer.

Muhammed behaves exactly as one might expect of a bookseller. He meticulously cleans off his oval spectacles, he claims to know the title of every single one of his books, and when a customer comes by, he is hard-pressed to look up from his reading.

Above all else, Muhammed is a pious man. He works from 10 in the morning to 10 at night, only leaving his shop to pray at a nearby mosque. His religion is his key source of motivation. Though the store has allowed Muhammed to support his wife and six children, for him, it is primarily a dedication to knowledge and the pursuit of a well-deserved afterlife.

“The Quran says it is necessary to read. That if you know, you will move to the next world, the other world,” he said

Yet the majority of Moroccans do not share Muhammed’s vast experience with the written word. Muhammed considers this a great disappointment and even though he rarely leaves his reading to engage with the people perusing his merchandise, he has paid close attention to changes in patronage over the years.

“Oh, this generation doesn’t read. They use machines. They don’t know anything about literature or culture,” he said, reminiscing over the late ‘60s when his client base was largely comprised of French-speaking men. “Now it is girls and women.”

Muhammed is correct that the literacy rate among young women is increasing significantly. But this trend is not exclusive to young women. Data shows that younger generations are, in fact, far more literate than they were even 20 years ago. Today, 84 percent of males and 74 percent of females are able to read and write.

Despite this improvement in literacy, lack of education and underemployment are still large issues within Morocco’s borders.  While Muhammed has been able create a life among the works of great scholars and indulge in scientific novels (his favorite genre when he was a kid), he sympathizes with the plight of those who are not so fortunate.

“My brothers and my sisters are really poor,” he said. “They don’t work. In Morocco, it is difficult to work without any education, without people in your family who are educated and able to introduce you to other people.”

 

While some careers in Morocco may be dependent on familial ties and educational opportunities, Muhammed has chosen the life of a bookseller. For him, being a bouquiniste is more than a career, it is a continuous investment in this life and the next.

“In the Quran, what does God say?” he asked. “Those that know are not the same as those that do not.”

Education Tagged With: Culture, education, islam, literacy, literature, medina, Morocco, Rabat, religion

Reader Interactions

Art & Culture

Artist Helps Empower Moroccan Women through Ecological Art

by Perry Demarche RABAT, Morocco —  In 1995, when she was 25 years old, Asmaa Benachir … Read Full Article

Art & Culture

DJ Sim H: Finding Freedom in Rap

By Najah Mateen CASABLANCA, Morocco - When Simo Sguiry was a child, he and his younger brother … Read Full Article

Art & Culture

Reporter’s Notebook: The Shopkeeper

BY IMANI BRAMMER Along a long road lined with colorful shops of sterling silver earrings, rope … Read Full Article

Primary Sidebar

FOLLOW REPORTING MOROCCO

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Handprints in Oudayas

More Featured Photos

ALUMNI JOURNALISTS

Alumni Spotlight: Ben Bartenstein

SIT Students Visit Alum Perry DeMarche at Dar Si Hmad

Moroccan families mourn drowning of 45 who used risky migration route to Spain

Photo by WBUR

A reporter for Boston’s unheard voices: Spotlight on MOJ alum Paris Alston

More Alumni Posts

The Program

Reporting Morocco is produced by U.S. university students on an SIT Study Abroad program called 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.

Learn More

SIT Logo

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.

Morocco: Field Studies in Journalism and New Media is a program of SIT Study Abroad.

  • The World Learning Inc. Family:
  • experiment.org
  • https://studyabroad.sit.edu
  • worldlearning.org

Footer

  • Academics
  • Admissions
  • Apply
  • Alumni
  • Alumni Connect
  • Give
  • Media Center
  • Request Info
  • SIT Stories
  • School for International Training

    1 Kipling Road • Brattleboro, VT 05302 • 802 257-7751 • 800 257-7751 (toll-free in the US)
    SIT is a private nonprofit institution of higher education.

  • Explore SIT Graduate Institute

    © Copyright World Learning, Inc.