November 4, 2012   Casablanca, Morocco, Africa

Today we toured the old city of Casablanca and before you ask, yes we saw the famous Rick’s Café from the Humphrey Bogart movie, Casablanca.

We also visited the incredibly grand Hassan II Mosque.  It is the world’s third largest mosque with a prayer room large enough to hold 25,000 worshipers. Here again, the architecture is magnificent and the mosaics beautiful.

Our guide was much better than the one in Marrakesh, more knowledgeable and better at explaining the history.  Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco and a prime example of blending ancient history with modern technology. The city was in deep decline until it was taken over by the French who remodeled it with large streets, public parks, and imposing Moorish architecture. Though no longer controlled by the French, it is the most important port city in Morocco and a thriving example of past and present.

Our guides both days also talked repeatedly about how tolerant the Muslim religion and Moroccan cultures are. My feeling is that this is a region of great transition and struggling with the change. You still see coffee houses with dozens of men (no women) sitting at small tables in front and only men running the small shops in the souks. Some women still dress in full burkas – covered completely from head to toe in black robes with only a small slit for their eyes.  Women are not allowed to worship in the same room as men and are not allowed to pray at all during their periods. We heard on the news about a 15 year old girl who was killed by her parents for looking at a boy. The parents said that she brought shame to the family. However, you also see some younger women dressed in jeans with no scarves covering their heads and every kind of dress in-between. Modern music that you would hear in the US is on most of the radios in the souks and we saw music videos on the TV in several restaurants we went by in the more modern areas. Change is hard but inevitable.

Charli