Fatima Couscous, or The Story of the Head Scarves

Posted by Emily

First, here are a couple of announcements: I dyed my hair to blend in a little more. I have learned that blonde hair can attract a lot of unwanted attention!! Also, I'm going to Berkeley in the fall!

Now, the story of our head scarves.

Every night in the square near we were staying large crowds of people gather to watch the street performers, eat at the food stalls, heckle foreign women and who knows what else. The first night we went out there we didn't stay very long because of the unwanted harassment and touching. Gross. So we decided that we should try to wear head scares to see if that would help, since men aren't even supposed to make direct eye contact with women wearing head scarves.

We put our head scarves on right outside the hotel. We had originally put them on inside but then felt ridiculous walking by all the other tourists, so decided to take them off and put them back on OUTSIDE. Walking down the street, through the medina and out the square was an exciting adventure because all the shop owners recognized us and our disguise didn't help at all but instead got s MORE harassment and the name "Fatima Couscous". Fatima is a common Muslim name and couscous, as your probably know, is a common Moroccan dish. So they were making fun of us. Upon entering the square, we took the scarves off!!

We went to eat at the mass of food stalls that are set up every evening. Most of them serve similar foods, like couscous, tajines, skewers, salad, etc. However, as your walk through the aisles and past the various stalls, the workers try to hustle you in. We chose one close to the outside and ate quite a lot of food for about 8 dollars. The men working seem to love their jobs and are always joking around, making for a very fun atmosphere.

After dinner, we ventured out into the street performer's area and put our head scarves BACK on. This time they were very useful and did result in men leaving us alone and averting their eyes much more quickly. YAY! Our efforts were at least somewhat a success!!