Their rights of inheritance are minimal, and even their claims to their own children are in jeopardy should their husbands choose to divorce or repudiate them. Women are legally at the mercy of men. Two thirds of Morocco s women are illiterate, and while there are well-educated, prosperous, and ambitious women, the prevailing cultural model presents women as homemakers and mothers, rarely mixing with men outside the family, and indeed covering themselves with scarves and jellaba when they have cause to go out. A jellaba , by the way, is a very practical garment, not uncomfortable and easily slipped on over whatever one happens to be wearing, often pajamas, and in it the woman becomes a rather shapeless object and is officially invisible. For this reason, many women find wearing it a convenience as much as a statement.
Moroccan men can be a nuisance.
Like American men, they take up a great deal of space to which they feel similarly entitled, and they do not hesitate to assault women with rude and unwelcome propositions. Children learn accordingly and often follow tourists or any western-looking person down the streets, taunting and begging. This is a serious hindrance to the tourist trade, which Morocco hopes to encourage. The recent discovery of oil in an eastern province sparked a surge of hope for self-sufficiency, but in today s interconnected world that is not a viable option. Morocco is developing procedures that will encourage foreign investment.