Drag

On my way back down south last week, I took the train to Marrakech. On the train, some of the conductors were female. However, they were all wearing the same things as the male conductors: navy blue pants, navy blue suit jackets, and navy blue ties, over baby blue colored button-down shirts.

I was surprised to see these women wearing these particular items of clothing. Not so much because I had never seen Moroccan women wearing these particular items of clothing, but because in my town, I usually only see women wearing long keftans, or Moroccan women's robes.

I must say, I was very intrigued that they were wearing such clothes. It made me think about how few sartorial options women in my town have, at least without risking disapprobation by much of the rest of their community. Now, I realize that these female train conductors were not in my town when I saw them, and that most likely they do not live in my town. However, continuously seeing the limited clothing choices which women in my town have, I was glad that these train conductors had the option of wearing what they were wearing. This despite the fact that they were essentially wearing uniforms. And despite the fact that they were essentially wearing what is typically called men's clothing. Because despite how some would claim that these aspects of their clothing reflect a lack of true individuality and independent expression, I was nevertheless relieved to see these women as having at least an option of some substantive kind about what to wear, in comparison with the women in my town.

On the train, I was also struck by how a few people went to the space between the train cars to smoke. I've both observed, as well as read, that in the way many Moroccans act, they may seem to people who live in the USA that they, Moroccans, don't seem to care about being polite to strangers. Indeed, as an instance of this phenomenon, when walking up to a hanoot (Darija, or Moroccan Arabic, for "grocery store") in Morocco, if you don't walk all the way up to the counter, someone else will probably walk right past you and start getting what he or she wants from the shopkeeper rather than forming a line behind you. It doesn't matter if you were there first. Thus, to people who live in the USA, Moroccans may sometimes seem rude due to apparently not taking the considerations of strangers into account. So, I was pleasantly surprised when these Moroccans went to the space between the train cars to smoke.