We can say what we want, the exit of the Moroccan Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, has the merit of being bold and firm. On May 21, 2024, in the Chamber of Advisors, to answer questions from parliamentarians, the minister did not beat around the bush. Sure of his point, straight to his feet, he asserts that asking clients for their marriage certificate in hotels in Morocco “It’s against the law”. He specifies that “those who request this document are breaking the law. Requesting a marriage certificate or any other document without a legal warrant is a violation of privacy.” Before adding that “Those who request these documents must be prosecuted”. In other words, this rule which is in fact an abuse, since it is the Minister of Justice himself who affirms it with conviction, he, the guarantor of the application of Moroccan laws, still prevails in Morocco. And very many people have paid the price either by being thrown out of hotels, or by facing problems with the police, as we have been able to verify on several occasions, or by being forced to take two separate rooms, to pay twice for the same purpose, that is to say finding a subterfuge to spend time together in the same room incognito, hiding like thieves. We all know how it goes. You show up in a hotel with a woman and you have to show your credentials. Either the marriage certificate, or having a piston or an acquaintance who turns a blind eye, or you pay for two rooms and then you can do what you want. Everyone knows that the couple is there, at the hotel, to spend some private time. Some go there with women friends or men friends to rest, to talk, to confide, to escape family worries, to breathe, to recharge their batteries. Others go there to experience their sexuality. And some hotel establishments play on the fear of others and force their customers to pay more to be able to enjoy an intimate weekend. What can we call such behavior? An abuse on the part of hoteliers who demand the marriage certificate or two separate rooms from their customers. If the law is clear, it must be applied to the letter. And in this Abdellatif Ouahbi assumes his status as supervisory minister to do justice to all Moroccans, who, hotel or not, manage to find an intimate room and make love to their partner. It’s no secret that Moroccans don’t wait for anyone’s permission to enjoy their bodies. It is a lie to assert the opposite and it is gross hypocrisy to want to cast a veil over the sexual practices of Moroccans. And it is not by accepting couples in hotels that prostitution will increase or that AIDS will make a historic peak. Prostitution is now well established on the streets. We find it spread out on social networks and Moroccans express themselves freely about their sexual tendencies and desires. As for sexually transmitted diseases, they are there, hotel or not. Which means that all this debate caused by the words of Abdellatif Ouahbi amounts to political demagoguery. And it is always the citizen who toasts. Example: are tourists required to show their marriage certificate before going to their room in a hotel in Marrakech or elsewhere? No. Russian or Lebanese tourist, it’s the same. However, the Moroccan must bribe someone, pay double or get married before spending a night with a girlfriend, for a simple sex affair. The absurdity here reaches such a degree of aberration that it is unspeakable to be so inclined to demagoguery and manipulation in the name of a few falsely pious and pseudo-moralizing sermons. Let’s take another example: in five years, Morocco will host Cup matches football world 2030. There will be a lot of tourists and a lot of young people from all over the world. Are we going to require millions of people to get married before coming to watch a Morocco/Germany match and ending up in a room with a girlfriend or boyfriend? Without forgetting that many voices are rising to the occasion and insisting on the fact that homosexual couples and there are many of them in Morocco, men or women, slip through the cracks without showing any papers before going to make love. A man with a man in the same room? It’s happening. A woman with a woman in the same room? It’s happening. And the others? No. Smart guy who will be able to explain this equation to us with zero unknowns.
