Two Imams

One of our assignments was to meet with the Imam (similar to a priest) of our village to discuss the role of religion in environmental conservation. Morocco is 99% Muslim, so religion and culture definitely overlap and feed into each other. Our school landlord arranged the visit for us and we were happy to find that not one, but two Imams came to meet us. They told us about a number of stories from the Koran as well as sayings of the Prophet that speak to the way animals and the environment should be treated. I was struck by how universal the themes are for being a good person. They asked us about Christianity and if there were similarities or differences, which we identified and talked about.

From our discussion, I learned that Muslim men are supposed to provide for their wives. Women typically go from living with their parents and families to living with their husband, many times still in the same family compound. It is interesting that in the rural areas of Morocco, and in our village, the women do the lions share of the work. They cook, clean, care for and feed the animals, care for and raise the children, tend the fields, gather the firewood, and often times they have a craft such as rug making or weaving. All of this happens during a day that begins at 6:30 am and goes until after dinner at 10pm. In our village, it was difficult to discern what the men do. They are home for meals, but I don't know where they are during the day. We saw only one man in the fields during our daily walks around town and my host father was at school the afternoon we met with the local Mokadem (kind of like the mayor).