The Male Gaze in Morocco

When the street feels like enemy territory

Four weeks ago, my husband and I officially moved to Casablanca, Morocco. In the months before we came, we were constantly asked how we felt about the treatment of women in Morocco and if we were nervous about acclimating to a society so different than the U.S. and Thailand, the two countries we’ve lived in together.

I’ll admit we brushed these comments off as we affixed rose-colored glasses firmly over our eyes. We said things like, “It isn’t much better in the U.S, just look at the recent…