Ramadan and daylight saving time: Moroccans’ discontent grows

In Morocco, the normal time is GMT time and not GMT+1, says Bouazza Kherrati, president of the Moroccan Association of Consumer Rights. In a statement to Al Ayyam 24, he explained that energy savings were the reason given for adopting daylight saving time (GMT+1). "But today, there is no longer any discussion about energy savings, and therefore, the basis of this decision is invalid, and consequently, this time is invalid," he added.

"If the official motive was commercial exchanges, we would have to add 8 hours for our time to match that of China, given that our trade with Beijing is more important than with Paris," Kherrati continued, also stressing that the time change negatively affects the mood and morale of Moroccan citizens.

In the same vein, psychology professor Hicham Khabbache affirmed that "our biological rhythms are synchronized with temporal rhythms, that is to say the external time," and that any time change creates psychological tensions. "We should sleep well, wake up at a precise moment, and work at a precise moment according to the rising and setting of the sun," he explained.

The expert notes that the time change is not good for children who have fewer hours of sleep and go to school while it is still dark, which causes them psychological discomfort. The same psychological tension is also observed in civil servants and employees who become more anxious, Khabach specifies, indicating that the ideal would be to live "according to our own temporal rhythm, and not that of the Europeans".