Below you will find a variation on the now-obligatory blog post announcing that I will be leaving the United States for Morocco. I do actually plan to occasionally blog (*gasp*). I can make a few promises just so that you have some baseline at which to establish your expectations:
- There will be lists. And lots of them. (Case in point, this is a list.) Lists about the challenges of living abroad, the best foods, the most stunning travel destinations, my favorite things about Morocco, etc.
- I make no promises on the exact number of posts I will write over the course of the next year. Based on my previous study abroad semesters in India and France, I would say around four.
- The blog post entailing, "How life is as a foreign woman in Morocco", and its many iterations do not tend to produce interesting or thought-provoking discussion. At a minimum, my blog is for you to keep appraised of the basics. If you have interesting questions, send them my way so I can blog about them!
Is this* a slightly impulsive, crazy thing to do? (*This = moving to Morocco for a year.) Why yes! Yes it is. Am I nervous? Yes. Should I be? Maybe. Statistically, Morocco is one of the safest countries in the Middle East and handily trounces the United States in its few deaths due to gun violence. According to a 2015 NPR article, "If the United States were in the Middle East, it would
have the second highest rate of gun deaths of any nation — more than Libya,
Egypt, Sudan and Israel combined." If you include casualties incurred in war zones, only Iraq surpasses the United States in gun-violence deaths. (This revelation produces a wholly-unrelated, but equally important, discussion about addressing America's gun violence epidemic to which I do not have time to do justice.) Moral of the story: I am safer in Morocco than I was during this past summer in Washington DC.
Always the quintessential 20-something, recent college graduate, I am unsure of what I want to do with my life. I have considered everything from grassroots development work abroad, to nonprofit management, to consulting, to becoming a yoga instructor. Of two things I am certain (ahem, second list): First, I hope that my blog and I can serve as a bridge for you to delve into new cultures, new religions, and new languages. My privilege to travel abroad should serve as a way to broaden the perspectives of those around me. Two, whatever career I have in life, I hope to use my life to make the lives of those around me better.
As a woman traveling to the Muslim world, I am often asked how women are treated in the Middle East. The subtext behind this question often seems to be: "Aren't women oppressed in the Arab world? How will that be for you?" The answer to that well-intentioned yet misguided question is thus: Women are treated pretty poorly all around the world. I just spent four years at a prestigious American liberal arts college in which my chances of being sexually assaulted were one in four. In the United States three women every day are murdered by an intimate sexual partner. I have the exquisite pleasure (intentional sarcasm) of walking down a good-old American street (more intentional sarcasm) and being made to feel unsafe by the catcalls of my fellow Americans who just want me to feel liberated (#Amuricah #freedom #sarcasm). If you want to learn more about the problematic sexualization of women and girls in the U.S. and the broader West, please read Do Muslim Women Need Saving?, a wonderful book by Lila Abu-Lughod. In summation, women face discrimination and oppression all around the world. Critique of Arab or Muslim-majority nations must come with an equally healthy critique of the shortcomings in American society as well.
With that cursory introduction into my new adventure in Morocco and perhaps to some of my political opinions (I mean, it is the internet. What's a good blog post without some unwarranted political opinions?), I leave the country! If you want to stay in touch, please reach out via Facebook, email, or your favorite carrier pigeon (I'm looking at you, George).
