"I was able to spend quality time with a great volunteer and her boyfriend. On Saturday morning, we went to what she called the ‘flirting’ festival in a valley village called Sidi Abd el-Jbar. Before I explain the intricacies of the flirting festival, I must digress and explain a little bit about women’s dress in Morocco."
Peace Corps Volunteer Joshua Haynes in Morocco; The Courting Dance
The Courting Dance
This weekend was spent in the picturesque town of Tafraout, a real-life example of the Flinstone’s Bedrock. This area of the Anti-Atlas mountains is, like most of Morocco, breathtakingly beautiful. There are literally hundreds of villages neatly perched throughout the mountainsides and valleys. The only bad part is actually getting there: the path up the single-lane cliff hugging road is very scary, especially to people like me who have had defeating bouts with falling off of high places before. [Think of me, falling, Ecuador, a volcano and a mean horse and make up your own story.]
While trying to figure out the silver industry and its woes here in Guelmim, I heard a lot about a silver mine in the Tafraout area and an organization called the Organization National D’Argent (National Silver Organization). Well, when I finally got up to Tafraout, 3000 feet up and 6 hours from Guelmim later, I was very disappointed to find virtually nothing. I was able to talk to very few people because the silver industry in Tafraout has all but died out. Too bad no one told Guelmim….
Oh well, I was able to spend quality time with a great volunteer and her boyfriend. On Saturday morning, we went to what she called the ‘flirting’ festival in a valley village called Sidi Abd el-Jbar. Before I explain the intricacies of the flirting festival, I must digress and explain a little bit about women’s dress in Morocco.
A woman’s wardrobe in Morocco is completely dependent on location and conviction. A liberal woman in Rabat may wear a knee-lengthed skirt, a short-armed blouse and have beautiful, slightly tinted, short hair. A conservative woman in rural mountain Morocco may wear a black hamelhof, a large ’sheet’ that is wrapped in a way to discreetly hide everything including curves, hair and face. The continuum is quite expansive: you can see Paris runway woman and Kabul taliban woman all on the same day: it all depends on location.
In Béni Mellal, for example, women usually wear a jilaba, the long robe-type garbs with a hood, and a hijab or zeef (scarf). In Guelmim, however, women usually wear a milhafa, a variant of the hamelhof. What I like about Guelmim is that the milhafat come in every color, color combination and pattern possible. A woman’s relative figure is still appreciatable and a woman’s fabric choice is a great indication of her personality. The way the garb is wrapped is also indicative of the region. In Tafraout, women wear a black hamelhof with a solid-color trim, which takes us back to Sidi Abd el-Jbar and the flirting festival.
In this part of Morocco, arranged marriages are still quite common and the new lovers are lucky to know each other for more than a few weeks. There are very few occasions in this conservative environment where the sexes intermingle. Because we had arrived on Saturday morning, we missed the main flirting procession that had taken place the night before. Despite our misfortune, we were still afforded the opportunity to watch the courting take place.
A unmarried lady usually keeps the curtains to her face covered except for her eyes. The right and left pieces of face fabric are held together by her clothes-pin hand. Upon seeing an attractive fellow, she will open her eyes very wide to make sure that the guy knows that she’s potentially interested. If he reciprocates with some sort of ensuing gaze, she will quickly draw the curtains back to the side of her face. The gentlemen will not say very much, he will just walk up the hill and sit on one of the many boulders overlooking the traditional valley.
Sometimes she can be mean. She can make him wait, seated alone, for quite a while. If she is still interested and feels that she’s done leading him on, she proceed up the hill and sit a few feet from the gentlemen and they will begin to discuss.
This courting ritual, although seemingly antiquated, is very fascinating to observe. I wish all the flirting the best of luck.
