Cave-dwelling in Morocco

Are you planning to visit the Fes-Boulmane region and want to stay somewhere with a difference? Spend a few nights living in a cave, writes Suzanna Clarke.

Located about half an hour's drive from Fez, at the foot of the mountain Jebel Kandar, the village of Bhalil offers an unusual attraction - about 40 families from the village's 1500 inhabitants live in dwellings hewn out of the rocks.

Legend has it that Roman soldiers who decided they did not want to return to Rome when their legion pulled out in 285 AD decamped to the area, and some of the people who live and come from there are their descendants.

Moussa

Now based in Montpellier, France, Moussa Chouaf owns two caves in Bhalil, which he rents out to tourists. His daughter Aurelie says, "My father was born in Bhalil in one of the most ancient families. He was the first born of a family of eight children. His family is one of the oldest in Fez, and they originally came from Volubilis. Their name was Chkounda, which means "secondi" in Latin."

When Moussa was 11 years old, his family moved to France. "He is really attached to his origins and to his family, especially his grandmother (his mother's mother) who left this world in 2004," says Aurelie. "She raised him and taught him a lot about life."

Moussa's grandmother used to live in a cave dwelling in Bhalil until she passed away. "My father decided to buy two caves in her memory and in memory of his childhood there. He renovated them and installed some European comforts, to be able to create a kind of a guest house for everybody to discover Bhalil, its people, its wonderful surroundings and share a bit of his story with them."

The caves Moussa rents out are about 45m2, and furnished in an attractive and comfortable but uncluttered way. They have modern bathrooms and a patio which has a view over the center of the village. It's possible to purchase half or full board and Moroccan cooking lessons are on offer.

During the heat of summer the caves are an appealing place to stay, as they are extremely well insulated and several degrees below ambient air temperature.

Bhalil offers a good base from which to explore the region, with the imperial cities of Fez and Meknes not far away, as well as the archeological site of Volubilis and the natural beauty of the lake near Ifrane. You can fly into Fes-Saiss airport, which is about 30 kilometers away. The laid-back town itself is also an attraction, with many artisans who produce traditional crafts.

If you would like to find out more about staying at one of Moussa's caves, CLICK HERE. 

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Morocco launches new national AIDS strategy

Focusing resources on populations at high risk of HIV infection is at the core of a new national AIDS strategy in Morocco. Launched in Rabat on 3 April by the Minister of Health, El Hossaine Louardi, Morocco’s five-year strategy is closely aligned with the targets of the 2011 Political Declaration on AIDS.

Compared with a majority of African nations, Morocco has a low national HIV prevalence, estimated at approximately 0.15% of the general population. However, recent data show a concentrated and growing HIV epidemic in the country among key populations. According to government figures, an estimated 5.1% of men who have sex with men are living with HIV nation-wide. In the south-western city of Agadir, HIV prevalence among sex workers is about 5%. In Nador, a coastal city in the north-east, nearly one in five people who inject drugs is HIV-positive.

Addressing an audience of more than 300 national partners in the AIDS response—including government officials, civil society representatives and people living with HIV—Mr Louardi said that the national plan aims to halve new HIV infections and reduce AIDS-related deaths by 60% by the year 2016. He added the strategy is based on the principles of a right to health, accountability and inclusion of all partners in the HIV response.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé called Morocco’s HIV response “exemplary,” with people placed squarely at the centre of national development efforts. He praised Morocco as a regional pioneer in protecting the health and human rights of vulnerable populations.

Morocco was the first Arab country to introduce harm reduction programmes for people who inject drugs, including methadone maintenance therapy and needle-syringe programmes. Evidence has shown that such programmes are essential to prevent the spread of HIV among key populations.

A new funding paradigm is needed in Morocco and across the African continent—one that is written and owned by African countries  - UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé

Mr Sidibé recognised in his remarks a new medical assistance scheme for the country’s low-income population called RAMED (Régime d’Assistance Médicale des Economiquement Démuni). Under RAMED, 8.5 million Moroccans living below the poverty line, or just under 30% of the population, will benefit from partial or total exemption from treatment costs at public hospitals.

“RAMED is an important reform for social justice and the redistribution of opportunity,” said Mr Sidibé. “Providing vulnerable populations with social protection is a key strategy in the HIV response,” he added.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé with Princess Lalla Salma 

Credit: Le Matin.ma

Recognising Princess Lalla Salma’s contribution

Earlier in the day, Mr Sidibé met with Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco, wife of King Mohammed VI and President of the Association Lalla Salma de Lutte contre le Cancer, a national non-profit organisation. He thanked the Princess for her participation in last year’s UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS and for her on-going advocacy and support for programmes aimed at improving the health of women and children. In recent years, the Princess has been a leading voice in promoting the importance of integrated services for reproductive health and cervical cancer.

A call for reduced dependency on external HIV aid

In a separate meeting with Morocco’s Minister of Health, Mr Sidibé thanked the Minister for his efforts to push forward the Arab AIDS Initiative at a recent conference in Jordan. The new initiative is expected to accelerate national and regional efforts to achieve the targets of the 2011 Political Declaration on AIDS.

Noting that Morocco relies on external aid to fund 50% of its national AIDS response, Mr Sidibé urged the country’s leadership to assume a greater share of HIV investments. “A new funding paradigm is needed in Morocco and across the African continent—one that is written and owned by African countries,” he said.

Underscoring that a vast majority of HIV drugs prescribed in Africa are imported, Mr Sidibé called for the local production of antiretroviral medicines. He spoke of the need for a single African drug regulatory agency to ensure the faster roll-out of quality-assured medications across continent.

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RAM – SHAM!

Ever heard of customer care, Royal Air Maroc?

When I booked my flight for this Friday with Royal Air Maroc from Valencia to Fez last December, I was grateful for the almost five hour lay-over at Casablanca on the way out, as it gave me time to get into the city and back to the airport in time to attend a meeting before the second leg of my journey.

This evening I had a phone call from RAM advising me that the flight from Casablanca to Fez was being brought forward by more than two hours, so I wouldn’t have such a long stay at the airport between legs. Ordinarily, no bad thing, but on this occasion definite bad thing.

I explained that I had a meeting in Casablanca and couldn’t get back in time for the flight, so would they be able to put me on a flight the following day? No, apparently, they wouldn’t, as there were no flights available at this price. This price I assumed to be the price I had paid three months earlier, about 85€ (946MAD), being a quarter of the overall ticket of 340€ (3,787MAD). So he wasn’t saying that there were no seats left, only that there were none of the cheaper seats left. When I checked the seat price for the Saturday I found that the price I’d paid was almost the same as the second level of pricing, so I wasn’t trying to get one of the cheapest seats. When I tried to book one of the lower-priced seats later under a false name, I got to the point where the RAM online booking form accepted the reservation and only needed my credit card, which proves that either there were seats available on the flight or RAM are prepared to take bookings under false pretenses.

When I told the representative that if there were no seats I would have to go by train, and as it was them who had changed the flight time at relatively short notice, were RAM prepared to refund the cost of the Casablanca to Fez flight to pay for my train ticket? Definitely not is the answer. “We don’t do that. We’ve arranged for the on-going of the passengers, so that’s okay for us.” Well, it’s certainly not okay for me, sunshine.

Even after leaving me hanging onto a tediously repetitive message for more than ten minutes to he could speak with a superior, the answer was still the same. Take or leave it, earlier flight or sort yourself out.

I fly regularly to Marrakech, but this was the first opportunity I’d had to go to Casablanca, so the long layover was a bit of a godsend and gave me the opportunity to arrange an important meeting. It would be very stupid and nonsensical to expect any airline never to change their schedules, but to be so abrupt and unaccommodating as Royal Air Maroc have been only reiterates what I’ve heard of their appalling reputation.

If I could see that there were seats available in a few minutes by simply going online and pretending to buy one, then surely it is within the realms of possibility that the person who called me could. So why lie and tell me there were no seats available? Probably because they hope to sell them, that’s why, and to hell with being even the least bit amenable to a customer who now has to cough up the cost of a night in Casablanca and a train fare.

Story by Derek Workman for The View From Fez

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You Have to Love Fez in Spring!

Photo: Gerard Chemit

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Sheikh Zamzami's Latest Fatwa - A recipe for what?

Hot on the heels of Justice Minister Mustafa Ramid alienating tourists to Morocco with his crass statement that, “People from all over the world come and spend a lot of time sinning and being away from God,”  Imam Abdelbari Zemzami, from Casablanca, has dipped his toe in the confused world of sexual mores by issuing a fatwa (a religious edict) saying that adult women who are divorced, widows, or women who have never had sexual relations with a man and have lost all hope that they ever will, are allowed to relieve their sexual frustrations with an assortment of root vegetables or kitchen implements.

Imam Abdelbari Zemzami

“A woman can get much benefit from these vegetables and other elongated objects,” said the cleric, and went on to list an assortment of vegetables, pestles and bottles.

Sheikh Zamzami is undeniably famous, if not infamous as well, for being well-versed in Islamic fatwas, especially those touching on taboo issues, such as sex, masturbation, sex positions, and sex education at large. Yet, according to an opinion piece in Morocco World News, the solutions he suggests that will allay one’s sexual and emotional repression haven’t lived up to Moroccans’ expectations in that they are exaggerated and preposterous.

Omar Bihmidine, writing in Morocco World News is scathing. As usual, similar to previous fatwas, the latest one has sparked an outcry amongst Moroccans, especially among conservative ones. As a response to the outcry, Zamzami elaborated on the issue, adding that he is ready at any time to argue the controversy and that he is all ears to any proofs from the Quran and Sunna if the public dare to come up with them and disprove his fatwa.

However, by perusing the sheikh’s fatwa, we can’t help inferring that he himself didn’t base his fatwa on tangible proofs from the same sources. The so-called proofs he supported his statements with were merely in the form of alleged quoting some late anonymous savants in the past who too issued the same fatwa, and also in the form of likening hunger and thirst to women’s sexual desires. That is, no hadith and Qurantic verse were exemplified and made notice of.

The Imam, an expert in Islamic jurisprudence, added that it was better for women to use these methods to relieve the pressure of sexual needs than to ‘fall into sin’, by which, one assumes, he means by taking a lover outside of marriage, strictly forbidden by Islamic law. As an Alem, an Islamic Scholar Zemzami, is empowered to produce Islamic rulings that can easily be considered an obligation on the Muslim community in Morocco.

Zemzami is also a supporter of sex shops and sex toys, and said that the reason a 23-year old man was jailed in Morocco recently for trying to sell sex toys on the internet, was that he didn’t have the correct papers, and that in fact the sale of this type of products isn’t prohibited in the country. This Imam of the Suni Maliki sect, raised eyebrows last year when he issued a fatwa saying it was okay for a man to have sexual relations with the corpse of his wife, as they would be reunited in paradise.

In the current state of tension in Morocco after the recent death of a 16-year-old rape-victim Amina El Filali , Imam Zemzami’s comments will continue to stir the barrel of confusion regarding sexual matters that is current in the country.

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Saving the Ancient Hammams of Fez

The roof of the ancient Seffarine hammam

The traditional hammams in Fez are in a difficult struggle to survive. The costs of repairs and restoration has grown to the point where many are closing, or likely to do so in the near future. The Hammamed Project is an initiative that hopes to turn that around. Guided tours and training seminars to rediscover and rejuvenate ancient hammams in Damascus (Syria) and Fez (Morocco) are some of the initiatives of the project. It is funded by the EU as part of the Euromed Heritage IV programme.

''For us, it is like planting the seed for the future,'' said Naima Lahbil, who is working on the project in Morocco with the Ader-Fez organisation.

The Seffarine Hammam cold room (above) and changing room (below)

''I remember doing guided tours with some young people,'' said Lahbil, ''who all live in Fez's Medina and all go to hammams, since it is considered a part of everyday life in Morocco. The hammam where I took them, however, they were not familiar with.

This means that heritage can be discovered every day, even living in the Medina and it being part of everyday life.'' The head of the Hammamed project in Fez said that during that visit to the Medina, ''the youths made some proposals on what they thought should change in the hammams to make it more of an attraction.''

The European project also worked with students from Fez's architecture faculty. Lahbil said that ''thanks to our seminars, these future architects now know that the hammam is a private experience and that the space itself must lead to this experience, with specific rules from the division of the heated areas to the lighting. But not only this: the hammam is a private experience and at the same time a universal and social one, since there is space to have a conversation in, where people can meet.''

The Hammamed head thinks that ''these are all factors that an architect must take into consideration.''

The European project also worked on the restoration of the ancient Turkish bath in Fez, the Seffarine one.

Lahbil said that ''thanks to our intervention, there is the chance that the restoration is in line with the original experience of the hammam, and we hope it will have an impact also on other hammams.''

The association Ader-Fez has now ''drawn up a feasibility study for the restoration of about 40 hammams in the Fez Medina. Lahbil noted that ''this document can be used to attract funding from donors. A few years back something similar was done for caravanserais, and some donors agreed to restore them,'' especially as ateliers for artisans to work in.

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