“The Gay Hunt and the Moroccan State” by Abdellah Taïa

Abdellah Taïa is the first Moroccan writer who is openly gay. For us, he comes back to the wave of outing that is currently raging in his country, Morocco.

To kill time, to forget boredom and Corona, to have fun, to laugh, some Moroccans have found nothing better in recent days than to embark on a new witch hunt. To flush out their gay fellow citizens where they are “hiding”, these perverts, on dating sites, screen their profiles and share them without any hesitation on traditional social networks. In other words: OUTER them. Expose them. Laughing at them. Throwing stones at them. Making them more vulnerable. Putting them in greater danger. Killing them. Better yet, drive them to suicide. Anyway, have a good time. Nothing out of the ordinary. Some fun, you want some, here you go. It’s all good. It’s all good. It’s all good. It’s all good. We’ll clean Morocco of this filth. Hurry up, hurry up. Hurry up. Hurry up. Hurry up. Ramadan is coming soon.

This game started with a live on Instagram from a Moroccan social networking star. A transgender person . Who suddenly lost her sense of reality. Having become insane and assumed criminality, she has voluntarily joined this territory in which we find everything that is wrong with Morocco: social hypocrisy as a political program, blindness as a strategy for the future, especially not to encourage those who for years have sacrificed themselves to advance the cause of individual freedoms.

Not only did this “star” tell others how to find gay people, but she also explained that, thanks to the geolocation system of smartphones, they will have the joy of finding someone they know on these sites: a classmate, a neighbour, an uncle, a nephew, an aunt, a father, your own father, a former teacher, a minister perhaps, who knows…

Wonderful. It’s all so exciting. We don’t have to do anything. The Corona is so heavy. We’re having the time of our lives. Let’s just go. Let’s just go. Let’s just go. Let’s just go. On your marks, get set, go. But what a success! And so quickly.

The Moroccans obviously don’t have a heart. They’re experts at double-dealing, showing the right face at the right time, hiding what there is to hide. But when the opportunity to have fun, to laugh, to kill the other one with jokes, with a non-serious mind, you can’t miss the chance. Morocco is a beautiful country, so beautiful, and it must be kept clean. Let’s go, the new gay hunting season has begun. It’s better than Netflix. Join the movement.
What about the others? The ones who don’t agree with all this? Where are they? What are they doing? Silence again?
“Sometimes you also get this answer: there are no gays in Morocco. »
It’s complicated, my friend. It’s dangerous for them, for them. We can’t show our support, otherwise we’re going to think we’re “in it” too. We can’t do that. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Of course you’re sorry. We understand that. We understand them. We’re supportive, but in the shadows. It’s not their fault. When the state doesn’t protect, everyone gets scared. Afraid of everything. Afraid of losing everything in one click: family, work, housing.

In the middle of Corona, to find themselves on the street. We understand them. Quite sincerely, we understand them.

So, what to do? We go to the show. It’s “Hunger games”, Moroccan version. We assume? We do?
The state’s not moving. It’s been the same old story for years: Freeing homosexuals, protecting the LGBTQ+ community, is not a priority for the kingdom. Sometimes we also get this answer: there are no gays in Morocco. It is up to you to choose which of these answers suits you best. Morocco is a Muslim country, have you forgotten that?

Precisely, Islam is not the problem here. It’s rather the hearts of the people that are the problem. The hearts of those who run the country and who, deep down, through their guilty silence, allow this kind of witch hunt. This must be to accommodate the political calculations of some people. It sure does.
At some point, a strong and credible political figure in Morocco must stand up and take up the cause of LGBTQ+. If the great politician Mehdi Ben Barka, who was assassinated in Paris in 1965, were still alive, I am sure he would have liberated Moroccan gays. Who will be our Mehdi Ben Barka today? Who is this courageous political figure, man or woman, who will be our hero-hero for real?

We’re dreaming. I’m dreaming. But, at the same time, I have seen since the early 2000s that several Moroccan human rights associations and many newspapers have been constantly mobilising for the gay cause. They have done so publicly. And at this very moment, they are helping the victims of this new witch hunt enormously. They are doing it very seriously and very sincerely. I’m sure they are.

In tomorrow’s world, very soon therefore, we must do everything we can to ensure that LGBTQ+, in my country Morocco, as elsewhere, are no longer the ideal victims, designated in advance by a system that is heading straight for the wall.

But the State is not there. To the absent subscribers. And without a political response, nothing will move. Gays, lesbians, transgender people and their friends will continue to be sacrificed. And we will continue to say that Morocco is modernizing and the international jet-set will continue to find there the Thousand and One Nights scenery it so badly needs to survive the so infernal rhythm of the West. An ideal space to realize your orientalist dreams, your neo-colonialist fantasies. Come to our place. Close your eyes too. We are an open-minded people. We’ve even organised concerts with singers Elton John, Mika and Ricky Martin. They’re gay, aren’t they?

How long do you think this situation, this standoff, will last? How long can we keep burying our heads in the sand over and over again?
There’s so much talk these days about the post-corona world. We all have to question ourselves deeply. We can’t be like we were yesterday. In the same mistakes, the same racism, the same rejection of the other, the foreigner, the different, we have to go to the other and reach out to them, don’t we? We have to get out of what’s killing us all. Capitalism and its monsters.

In tomorrow’s world, very soon therefore, we must do everything we can to ensure that LGBTQ+, in my country Morocco, as elsewhere, are no longer the ideal victims, designated in advance by a system that is heading straight for the wall.

All my love to the LGBTQ+ in Morocco. And throughout the world.
Abdellah Taïa is 46 years old. He is the author of a dozen novels. He won the Prix de Flore 2010 for “Le Jour du roi” (published by Seuil). His latest book, “La vie lente” (Seuil), was published in France in 2019 and is now available in paperback. He also directed the film “ L’Armée du salut “ (The Salvation Army) released in 2014.

Image credit: Abderrahim Annag