It's ten years since King Mohammed VI took the reigns of the Moroccan monarchy. Two of our Moroccan Observers comment on his time in power so far. Read more...

Going against the advice of the authorities, a Moroccan association is organising a conference on homosexuality in Marrakesh. Read more...

A freakish cold spell in the Moroccan town of Beni Mellal has already killed at least ten people this year. Our Observer there condemns the inaction of the public authorities. Read more and see his photos...

For replacing "God, The Nation, The King" with "God, The Nation, Barcelona" on the blackboard at school, a Moroccan football fan was condemned to 18 months in prison. His father tells us that after calling for appeal, his has been released on bail, but he faces a retrial on November 5. Read more...

The harbour of Sidi Ifni, in southern Morocco, was once again blocked by citizens on strike last Monday. This video, sent by one of our Moroccan observers, seems to show that the strike was broken up in a particularly brutal way. Read more...

Fouad Mourtada got three years in a maximum security prison for creating a fake Facebook profile page for a member of the Moroccan royal family. Now, web users all over the world are ganging together to get Fouad out of prison. Read more…

Web-users show support for the Facebook prisoner online

A Moroccan “sniper” has posted a video of police accepting bribes from motorists. Read more and see the video…

The African Cup of Nations (CAN), which kicked off its 26th yearly edition on Sunday, is followed worldwide and rivals the UEFA Euro competition and the Copa America in popularity. The atmosphere is, of course, heating up most in Africa's major cities, from where our Observers will be sending us post-match updates with photos and comments. Here are comments and predictions from Abidjan, Casablanca, Cotonou and Accra. Read more...

For more than a year the French streets and metro stations have been invaded by ‘tecktonik' dancers. Born out of a mix of electro and hip-hop moves in a suburban nightclub, the dance has now found its way onto the shores of Morocco. Young Moroccans haven't only adopted the popping and locking dance-moves, they've also taken on the ‘Nu Rave' style clothing and futuristic hair cuts to match. Not quite fitting with traditional Moroccan culture, the wave hasn't gone down quite so well with older generations. Read more...

 

Rumours of a supposedly gay marriage, reported by the local press, lead to a modern-day witch-hunt in Ksar el Kébir, Morocco. At the heart of the scandal is a private party that took place at the end of last month. The organiser, according to the minister of interior, wanted to ‘act out a fantasy in which a woman asks him to dress like her and offer a present to saint Sayad Al Madloum'. It was the images below, shot at the party and posted on YouTube, that really stirred up the trouble. Thousands of Ksar el Kébir residents took to the streets to protest against the offence, clapping and chanting homophobic slogans. On 10 December, the party organiser was charged for ‘sexual perversion' and the ‘illegal sale of alcohol'. He was sentenced to ten months in jail. Read more...