In Morocco, a Struggle Over Sexuality
The North African country is wrestling with how it treats the gay community.
CASABLANCA, MOROCCO — Walid, a 30-year old devout Muslim, says he realized he was gay when he was 13. Growing up in Morocco, however, where homosexuality is reprimanded, finding acceptance for his sexuality was difficult, says Walid as he recounts his thinking as a young male.
“I would like to follow the ‘normal’ path, but then I tell myself that I’m not ‘abnormal’ so my head is a real mess at the end of the day,” says the waiter who lives in boisterous Casablanca, the country’s commercial hub.
Walid says despair led him to try to take his life 10 years ago. Today, he says he feels isolated and in contradiction with the precepts of his religion, Islam.
“I’m always afraid because I know that the society will never accept me as I am,” he says.
[READ: See how people around the world view Morocco’s culture]Yet, times may be changing in Morocco, a country with its own contradictions in how it treats sexuality. Last November, the country’s tourism minister, Lahcen Haddad, called for the decriminalization of homosexuality. That declaration broke a widespread taboo and deepened divides between political parties and the Islamic-dominated government, which had planned to toughen sanctions against gays. At the same time, Morocco has long been known for attracting Western tourists and being a sexual tourism destination.
The kingdom’s strict laws reflect a common tension in relatively progressive Arab societies: projecting the image to the world of being a liberal Arab nation that respects human rights and the push by Islamic groups to regulate sexuality. Sexual activity by gays is treated as a crime in many Arab countries, from Algeria to Iraq. In Libya, the criminal code can punish homosexual acts between consenting adults by death.
In Morocco, homosexuality is a crime. Article 489 of the country’s penal code punishes homosexuality by imprisonment from six months to three years and imposes a fine of at least $20 to $100. In January, two men were arrested after kissing at a college campus on Inezgane, a city in the country’s south.
The rise of Islamist parties, the influence of conservative TV channels from Gulf countries and the development of the Internet has contributed to radicalizing stances against gays across the Arab world, explains Soumaya Naamane Guessous, a sociology professor at Hassan II University in Casablanca.
Today, eight out of 10 Moroccans reject gays, according to a November 2014 poll conducted by the monthly magazine Telquel and the market research institute TNS. It surveyed 1,000 people 18 years of age and older.
Before the rise of Islamist parties, “there used to be some degree of tolerance as Moroccans would not incriminate, condemn or judge homosexuals,” says sociologist Naamane Guessous. Before Morocco’s independence in 1956, the country, especially the northern port of Tangiers, was a haven for gay Americans and Britons.
Across the region today, “More youngsters go to the mosque and feel invested in the mission to defend Islam against disbelievers who want to destroy it and push Muslims towards fornication and deprivation,” Naamane Guessous says.
The public discourse over decriminalizing homosexuality in Morocco has also put a focus on privacy, a key aspect in Arab societies. Nouzha Skalli, a politician from the left-wing Party of Progress and Socialism, is skeptical about a possible decriminalization of homosexuality in the kingdom. “Conservatism is shared among political actors and there is a lack of political courage not to lose votes,” she said in a phone interview from Rabat.
In practice, tolerance of homosexuality in conservative societies may come through considering it a medical condition. In Iran – where homosexuality is punishable by death – the government offers financial assistance for sex changes to “diagnosed transsexuals.” In 2008, that country carried out more sex-change operations than any other country except for Thailand, according to the BBC.
“My mother never accepted the fact that I’m gay: for her it’s a curable disease,” says Zineb, a 31-year old Moroccan entrepreneur who lives in Montreal. Zineb recalls how, when she was 19, she told her mother she liked girls. He mother, Zineb says, thought her daughter had wasted her parents’ advice.
This story was published by US News and World Report on March 3, 2016. Click here to read it.
