Note - this is mostly second-hand, from other people who have tried going to bars and whatnot.
There are basically 3 types of bars, as far as I can tell.
1) Male-only bars. There is no music but lots of guys hanging out and smoking cigarettes.
2) The same as above, but with prostitutes and music. A lot of guys in Fes said they tried to find good bars and this is all they found. They also said it was incredibly awkward.
3) Bars that are very 'Western', i.e. both men and women can enter, there is music, etc. Also incredibly expensive. I'm not quite sure how expensive "incredibly expensive" is though. I think ~$15/beer.
Alcohol is legal in Morocco but there is a strong movement that thinks that it should be illegal. As a result, drinking alcohol is stigmatized by the dominant social class. People who deviate from this are not poor people so much as very wealthy people, I think.
So in general there isn't much of a nightlife simply because of the stigma associated with alcohol.
There are basically 3 types of bars, as far as I can tell.
1) Male-only bars. There is no music but lots of guys hanging out and smoking cigarettes.
2) The same as above, but with prostitutes and music. A lot of guys in Fes said they tried to find good bars and this is all they found. They also said it was incredibly awkward.
3) Bars that are very 'Western', i.e. both men and women can enter, there is music, etc. Also incredibly expensive. I'm not quite sure how expensive "incredibly expensive" is though. I think ~$15/beer.
Alcohol is legal in Morocco but there is a strong movement that thinks that it should be illegal. As a result, drinking alcohol is stigmatized by the dominant social class. People who deviate from this are not poor people so much as very wealthy people, I think.
So in general there isn't much of a nightlife simply because of the stigma associated with alcohol.
So by dominant social class I assume you mean those with money, right? So they stigmatize it but also are its main consumers? Just making sure I got this right. Also, the disapproval is religious right?
ReplyDeleteI don't really know what I mean by dominant social class. I don't think I mean those with money, though, I think I'm thinking more in terms of religion (i.e. you're supposed to be very religious but not everyone is).
ReplyDeleteMaybe by the end of my time here I'll actually know what I'm talking about though.
sounds reasonable
ReplyDelete