Grace: How do you feel about laws regarding sex before marriage, abortion, or any government action that attempts to censor your relationships?
Interviewee: Can you repeat?
Grace: Okay for example how the government works to -control young men and women having relations before marriage, renting hotel rooms together, anything that is censoring relationships before marriage.
Interviewee: I mean before we talk about government we should talk about culture. Even your family doesn’t accept that. So how you think about government? At first I remembering like 2011, it wasn’t possible to do that, like have relationships, like outside in the open but now technology has changed everything. Not everything but I feel like there is a lot of freedom to choose if you want to be in relationship, and if you want to share that relationship with the world. But government, I could say they don’t care, but if they do catch you outside they will try to humiliate you.
Grace: Why do you think technology has changed things?
Interviewee: It is like if I talk to the world about my situation. In Morocco and share it to the world, they will feel guilty.
Grace: Like the government will be held more responsible?
Interviewee: Yes, people that haven’t come to Morocco think it is a beautiful country and everybody is living in peace but when they came here they realize a lot of things and the government wants to keep that good picture. And that is why the technology breaks that line
Grace: So do you feel like is a combination of religion, culture, and government and they can’t be separated?
Interviewee: Ah well first of all the religion did not talk to you about relationships, they talk about marriage. But it doesn’t say, “don’t do this or don’t do that”. Like you have freedom, you know? And government and society try to put religion into this to try and prove that this is wrong and this is not right, but I think religion has nothing to do with it. I mean Morocco is not a religious country, really. If we talk about Saudi Arabia we could say that, but Morocco is not really a religious country. It is not about religion, it is about a lot of things, culture, and government, how to organize things.
Grace: Do you think it is because they want to have control? For example, there is the recent case of a journalist that was inflammatory about the government, and then her, her husband, and her doctor were arrested for having sex outside of marriage and having an abortion. Even though these things were not proven. So it could be argued that they are using these laws to their own benefit as opposed to what the laws are actually written for?
Interviewee: Well first of all, we do not even have sex education. That’s why people see things like, what? What’s that? Then people turn like 20 and they will just try to understand. And then when the government sees people do this stuff it’s like normal but they put their system and rules by the way they think that’s right for their benefit. But it’s not true like its like we don’t have sex education. That’s why people say, that’s right and that’s wrong to have a relationship.
Grace: Yes, and so many people are having sex outside of marriage and having relationships in general before marriage, but sometimes the government does care. Why do you think sometimes they choose to enforce these laws?
Interviewee: It is also like they try to use religion. It is true that Islam didn’t allow for you to have relationships before marriage, it’s true. But it isn’t like they didn’t tell you to not have relationships. I do not know why the government does it like this. I think they are afraid of things getting out of control.
Grace: Yes, and it is this way with so many religions.
Interviewee: Yes, and without sex education, how do you expect people to act when you find yourself in relationships with other people. Like they will have circumstances that will come later and these will affect government and affect the picture of the government.
Grace: Yes, okay let’s move onto the next question. How strong do you think the force of Neo-colonization is in regards to French presence in Morocco economically, politically, culturally, and linguistically?
Interviewee: Can you rephrase it?
Grace: Yes okay so, France was the colonizer of Morocco and when they left Morocco it is argued that they didn’t really leave Morocco like they still have so many ties economically, politically, culturally, and Moroccans still speak French. So what do you think and feel about about that connection?
Interviewee: In fact, sometimes I wish that France did not come out of Morocco. They were at least teaching the kids. We had good education. French teachers would go to the villages and teach people well, that is why a lot of people speak French. I mean we didn’t get freedom or independence really. They just left figuratively because they didn’t have any benefit from staying here.
Grace: It was like a business transaction.
Interviewee: Yes, they did what they had to do and left. And when they left things went badly and nothing really changed.
Grace: Do you think they should fully detach from Morocco or is that not an option? Like the elite and royal family in Morocco still give the French business opportunities and have many economic ties, do you think this should still be a thing?
Interviewee: I mean I do not know the specifics but I can say there are a lot of companies here who are French. So I think they still have the benefit from a lot of things. That is why the relationship between France and Morocco is good. It doesn’t have to be good because of their history. But it is good now, so I think there is something going on.
Grace: Cool, okay third question, what do you think about the different languages that are spoken in Morocco? How do you think the use of these various languages will progress?
Interviewee: First I will say that I do not like Darija accent. I mean one day I think we will not be able to use Arabic as a language. I mean I remember when I was a kid in school and the teachers would speak with us in Darija. I mean we were studying Arabic, why do you speak to us in Darija? For me it is not a problem because I practice Arabic by myself, by reading and writing by myself. But when it comes to speaking Arabic you find like, it is not your native language.
Grace: Yes! Like even my host sister, she knows English, French, and Darija very well obviously but doesn’t really know Arabic.
Interviewee: Yes, that is weird. And this did not happen before. Like Arab countries we were connected. Like you can go anywhere and they saved Arabic as a language. But now everybody is stuck in their place and this allowed for a new accent that is Darija. And every day new words are coming and this goes wrong.
Grace: Do you think that people will continue to learn French as much or do you think that English will totally replace people learning French as a foreign language.
Interviewee: In fact, the area that I came from people do not like French. Just to learn it, they do not like it. They like English. And this came from childhood experience. As a kid I was going to French class, I was afraid of it. Like bad teachers, and this is stuck as a psychological thing. It has stuck with me like even if I want to learn it I can’t. I think English will be the first language, I mean after Arabic and Darija. French will somehow dissapear.
Grace: Yes, but a big part of French culture and soft power is preserving the French language. They are obsessed with it, they pump so much money into it but yes I agree it is fading.
Interviewee: Yes, even throughout Europe it is fading a lot and being replaced with English. And in Morocco people are beginning to prefer English.
Grace: So looking back a=t Arabic. It is difficult because students in the U.S. that want to learn Arabic, study this form of Modern Standard Arabic (FusHa), but it is not really spoken anywhere. There is just completely different dialects everywhere, there is no good way to go about learning Arabic as a foreigner.
Interviewee: Yes I mean if you learn FusHa you are just going to use it to read and watch movies. I mean there are some countries in the Middle East that still use it. But there are wars there, so there is no way you are going to use it, I mean this is an issue people are not talking about. This is a huge language that day after day we are losing the benefit of it, And people are not trying to change that fact, they just like their accents and are proud of them. It is sad because if you hear true Arabic, you will love it but for me, this Darija, I don’t like it. I wish to just go outside and just talk FusHa. But I can’t
Grace: So how did you learn FusHa so well?
Interviewee: I mean I love it. If you understand there is a history there. Also a lot of words in English came from Arabic and so many words from French came from Arabic. So much came from it, and it is beautiful too. We do we use this Darija that came from French words and so many other places, it doesn’t make sense.
Grace: Okay, let's move onto the next question, what do you think about the state of the Moroccan economy, what can be done to improve it? Just as a preface, I have talked to so many young Moroccans that are like, I need to get out of here, nothing is happening here, the unemployment is so bad, it is so hard to find a job, what do you think about all of that?
Interviewee: I mean if they opened the doors, like 75% would just get out. I mean when you realize that things don’t change, I guess you feel like you have to change by yourself, and just move on. And I do not think there will be a lot of opportunities that will come in the future, I mean, they will come but not for us. Just for people that will get benefits and have gotten benefits before.
Grace: You mean the elite.
Interviewee: Yes the rich, who get these opportunities. And there is not the option to like work and study, I have to choose one or the other. There is also, if you get the job and you don’t like it because people humiliate you, and don’t treat you the way they treat themselves, it’s not right. I mean there is opportunities but not equally. Even if you get those opportunities you have to sacrifice other things that you love..There is another important thing in Morocco where it’s like, I dream of something and I want to achieve that, it doesn’t work in Morocco.
Grace:Do you feel like this is because you feel closed doors and lack of opportunity? Like in my mind, when I am in the U.S.I’m not just thinking of my opportunities there, I see different opportunities all over the world.Do you feel like you don’t see as many opportunities because of the closed doors you face?
Interviewee: I mean there are not opportunities right here. And if you like to expand, to go and find opportunities in other places, the door gets closed in your face. The idea is, what should people do? They do this because people did not have a good education so when they feel themselves stuck and struggling, they start to complain, year after year.
Grace: It becomes a mentality where you can’t imagine different opportunities for yourself.
Interviewee: Yes, and there is a lot of negativity in society. I mean I personally choose to stay away from old friends because of their negativity. I know it isn’t their fault. I mean I was this way, I was very negative and complaining all the time. But one day I woke up. The government, society, your family, Morocco, they will not get anything from it. There is a good thing in this though, you will grow up, and struggle a lot, and you will learn from it, and if you use it in a good way, Like if you get a chance out of Morocco, you will find success in life, in other places. That is the good thing about Morocco, it teaches you.
Grace: It is like when you don’t have access to something for a long time, you appreciate it for all that it is worth.
Interviewee: Yes exactly.
Grace: So do you see a way the Moroccan economy can diversify itself or create opportunity or create different education opportunities or invest in different areas?
Interviewee: I understand, but that is connected with politics. You know like if they want to create different opportunities that are connected with good education, they can’t do that. Because they just don’t want to have good education. They don’t want you to have that, if you have that, you will say, what? We aren’t even living! I mean when I got my baccalaureate, and got out of thee university for a year, you know I didn’t like that so I started to try and educate myself. I found myself in high school for seven years and learned nothing. I just feel like I hadn’t even started. That’s a problem. I mean they will create opportunities in like normal jobs but not like have a future in it, not for people that have dreams, things they want to achieve
Grace: And talking about the relationship between the government and schools, I think about sociology where the government and these institutions control what you learn and know. So if you are in a very controlling state like a monarchy or authoritarian regime they can easily control what you know and how elevated you are through the education systems they fund.
Interviewee: Yes it is like they brainwashed you. Like people that studied in public schools, when they have kids they do not put them in public school, they are like, there is nothing there. There is just fear there. Like I still have that fear now. Even in university, if you want to talk about topic, any topic that is connected to things that they don’t want to talk about, like has connections with government they do not want to talk about it.