Morocco’s Unwritten Rule: Hotels Bar Single Women Despite No Official Law

Only a woman accompanied by her husband, brother or father can access hotels in the kingdom. Otherwise, she is met with a categorical refusal. Examples abound. On her Twitter page, a Moroccan woman denounced this practice on November 13. "Hotels in Casablanca do not accept single girls with an ID card bearing a Casablanca address," she was outraged. As she was heading to an establishment that is part of a famous Spanish chain, she was denied access. The reason given: "the law": "If you are alone and unaccompanied by your husband, brother or father, you are not allowed to stay in the hotel," the hotel reportedly told her, according to Middle East Eye.

Filmmaker Sonia Terrab, co-founder of Moroccan Outlaws, denounces "a clearly arbitrary and totally medieval practice." Her collective has received several testimonies, including that of a woman who was denied access to a hotel in the economic capital after booking a room to celebrate a French friend’s birthday. "Yet the room was already paid for. Not refunded. I had to find a place to sleep. Terrible treatment. I didn’t have the words," she writes. Her French friend did not suffer the same treatment. She slept at the hotel as planned. "I felt humiliated in my own country [...] You are treated like cattle. After that, I obviously left Morocco," she continues.

"Some hoteliers justify their refusal by a circular from the Ministry of the Interior, but there has never been a circular prohibiting a woman from staying alone in a hotel," comments a former senior official of the Ministry of Tourism. According to him, this practice is the result of the hoteliers’ excess of zeal. "Indeed, it is the hoteliers who are overzealous to avoid problems. They are afraid that the police, seeing that an unmarried woman is staying at the hotel, will conduct an investigation or cause them problems. The hotels therefore agree with the local authorities and decide on their own to apply these measures, even though they are not legally obliged to do so," confirms Sonia Terrab to Middle East Eye.

In Morocco, however, the woman and the man are equal before the law. Moreover, Article 19 of the Moroccan Constitution states: "Men and women enjoy, on an equal footing, civil, political, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights and freedoms." In addition, Article 431-1 of the Penal Code punishes with one month to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 50,000 DH (4,800 euros) any discrimination "when it consists in refusing the provision of a good or service."