Eid al Mar'a

Last Sunday was International Women's Day, or "Eid al Mar'a" - Holiday of the Woman - for short. I celebrated at a craft fair in Taroudant that featured women's products (my weavers actually attended, which was very exciting, as it was the farthest they've traveled for a craft fair so far!), where I listened to some ladies' singing and drumming and had henna done. It was definitely one of those "Peace Corps" moments...an odd but gratifying confluence of a United Nations initiative and a local celebration (speaking of the UN, check out my friend Helen's excellent recounting of our first brush with that bastion of internationalism and bureaucracy...).

But the most surprising part of International Women's Day came before I even got to Taroudant.

This week is also the week of the Prophet's birthday, which isn't as big a deal as Christmas, but is signficant nonetheless. Today and tomorrow are both national holidays and local moussems, or festivals, will be celebrated all over Morocco. Because of this, transportation has been a bit stressful lately (a lesser version of the taxi-related chaos associated with Eid Al Adha, or the Big Feast, which happened in December last year).

After spending a weekend by the sea in Agadir I headed to the taxi stand to catch a ride to Taroudant. But for the first time I can remember there were no Taroudant taxis to be found! My friend Megan had trouble getting a taxi south to Tiznit as well; I guess a lot of drivers just decided to start their vacation a day or two early. As a result, taxis were few and passengers scarce - never a good combination. I'd seen this situation before - it usually involves a free-for-all of elbowing and shoving whenever a taxi finally does appear - and I was not looking forward to it.

After waiting for about fifteen minutes with at least a dozen other passengers and no taxis in sight, a kurti (a taxi stand employee who sort of herds people into cars and handles payment) walked up to me and asked me if I was going to Taroudant. When I replied in the affirmative, he beckoned me to follow him and started walking down the road away from the taxi stand. Suspicious, I followed him (at a cautious distance) until I saw a taxi waiting, its trunk open. The driver said he was going to Taroudant and needed one more passenger. When I peeked inside, I noticed that the other five passengers were all women - something I have never seen south of Marrakech!

As I paid for my seat, the kurti proclaimed "Happy International Women's Day!" (in Arabic, of course) and sent us on our way.