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More than 2,000 gays on a boat, mini, shorts and bathing suits are expected to dock in Casablanca in a few days. The cruise and its future stop have already caused an uproar in this country where homosexuality remains taboo.
Boarding is provided in Barcelona on June 29. 2,000 homos, primarily American and European, are expected on an American company Holland America Line ship. E, for eight days of gay cruise. Program: clubbing, swimming pool, meetings... and a stopover of a day in Casablanca on 1 July prior to road to Cádiz, Spain.
But then the organizers welcomed to 'the first gay cruise to make stopover in Casablanca, the most famous seaside towns of the Morocco'This stop is not to the liking of everyone on the spot. Several internet sites are already warned about the arrival of these tourists to a new genre in the country. The opposition website tomorrow Online for example compared the landing of these vacationers flamboyant in a "gay pride parade held in Casablanca. The journal considers that "the arrival of 2,100 Gay tourists in the economic capital of the Kingdom triggered a controversy in Morocco, Muslim countries led by a commander of the faithful". A point of view that echoes recent statements of the Minister of Justice and the freedoms Mustapha Radhika, who had recently qualified Marrakech's 'city of sins '. Meanwhile, the Arabic-language newspaper Al Khabar was surprised and wondered about the agreement given by the State to these tourists of a particular kind (...). while homosexuality is a crime punishable by prison' in the Morocco. And the journal stressed also that, despite the prohibition of homosexuality in Islam, the Morocco remains one of the few Arab countries that has an association and a gay magazine.
Sex and beliefs
Several voices greet a contrario the arrival of these tourists, come spend their money in the country while the Moroccan tourism is not the best currently. If the cruise organizers have obtained all the necessary permissions from the Government, the Yabiladi site recalls that the Moroccan authorities have for the moment not yet officially reacted to the controversy.
The difficult coexistence of sex and beliefs is not new to the Morocco. Thus a Lebanese artist, who had shot one of his clips on the esplanade of the mosque Hassan II of Casablanca a few months ago, had caused an outrage... becauseShe appeared there in short skirt and high heels! Same uproar for an Italian ready-to-wear brand which had organized a fashion photo session and shot a promotional video with its models for its women's collection, in a religious building of Fez.
Jerome Pasanau
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