Casablanca Hammam and Spa Workers Petition Government for Reopening Amid Crisis

Professionals in the sector have found themselves without income, due to the pandemic and the measures that have been taken, and especially because they are mostly in the informal sector. They were unable to access social measures, even though it is a sector that generally employs the most disadvantaged people in Moroccan society. These are widows, divorced women, and people living in the greatest precariousness.

In a petition, "the profession of hammam and spa trades in Casablanca is outraged by the closure measures imposed on their establishments since March 2020." In Casablanca, there are about 15,000 establishments that were closed when the lockdown was announced on March 20 last year. Opened on June 25 of the same year, they will be closed a few weeks later, sending thousands of people into unemployment. The situation is the same in Marrakech and Beni Mellal, reports Médias24.

But what really annoys, according to Rabie Ouaacha, president of the National Federation of Associations of Owners and Managers of Traditional Hammams and Public Showers in Morocco, is the discrimination observed by professionals in the sector. While the hammams in the Greater Casablanca region, Kenitra and Agadir-Ida-Outanane are all closed, elsewhere they have been allowed to open.