Answers for people who asked me~

Q: Why do berber women get married so young?

A: The reasons that they married so early were to learn about home crafts in early ages and they needed money.

Q: Do Berber women wear Kaftans and Jellabas everyday?

A: Most likely yes. They wear simple designed jellaba or kaftan when go to work, and wears vivid jellaba when they go out to the market or cities.

Q: Why do berber woman marry the man at age 14-15? why do the man don't?

A: Like I answered earlier, they had to learn home crafts at early ages or needed money. Berber men doesn't get married like women, because even though they get married early, there's really nothing they can, to work.

Q: Why do you think the family has to agree if the daughter can go to college? Shouldn't it be the choice of the girl?

A: Yes, it is the choice for the girl to go to college, however, the family (means parents) has to agree also, because they are the people who has to pay the fee.

Q: When did Berber women got more rights? Are they still marrying at 14? Why are they getting married so early?

A: We still don't know when did the Berber women got more rights. In my opinion, Berber women have equal rights as men. For other questions, please read the other questions' answers that I answered.

Summary for Berber Women~

Berber Women have their own ways to live. They have their own clothing styles, to decorate themselves, works, marriage life, and educations. However, if we take their culture away from them, then they would start to have hard times to get use to the electronic objects. Most of Berber women wear kaftan or jellaba for their fashionable clothing under. Also, they wear the headdress to cover their head to keep the beliefs. Wealthy women of Berber, wear jewelries of “Hand of Fatima,” that are made if silver or gold. If a women doesn’t wear jewelry that is not made of silver or gold, they believe that they’re poor. In addition, Berber women do tattoos on their feet, hand, and sometimes permanently on their face, called “Henna.” They believe that those accessories keep bad lucks or illness away from them. Berber Women usually have long and harsh days. They sometimes work in the farm. When they do farm, they raise plants, crops. In their house, they make baskets, take care of children, elderly relatives, weave rugs, and make meals for their family. Marriage is most important part of Berber women’s life. The typical bride age for Berber is 14 to 15 and after the wedding, the bride goes to husband’s house and live there. They have their marriage in their home village or traditional bridal fair. Long time ago, Berber girls used to stay at home and learn about home-crafts from their mothers. However in present time, more than 40% of teenage girls attend schools, and if their family agrees, sometimes they go to college also. I think we should preserve Berber Women culture, because it’s how the live, and if we take away from them, they would be confused how to live without it. Even if they didn’t, they would have hard times to get used to it. Furthermore, they will make tons of mistakes with using electronic objects.

WWW Group

During WWW trip, our 7th grade class has divided up to 7 groups about Berber, and I was in "Food" group. There are variety of Berber foods. For example, one of them is couscous or tagine. We were able to eat couscous and tagine during every dinner. In addition, we were able to ask Berber people about how to make traditional food of Berber. The recipe of couscous was pretty easy. You can follow these instructions: 1. Prepare variety of vegetable (carrots, pumkins). 2. Prepare meat (if you want). 3. Make couscous (corns) 4. Make vegetable & meat stew for sauce on top. 5. Put couscous on the bottom, then the meat, after the vegetables. 6. Let them be cooked in the fire for 15 mins.

One day, before our delicious dinner, we had an experience to make the bread that the Moroccan usually eat with tagine. We went to the second floor of Mr.Mohammed's house (our guide) and went to a large room but dark. There were three women who were making the breads. We turned about and made our bread. After we made enough doughs, we put our intices on the dough and let them be in the bread. The next morning, our teachers gave back our breads, however when I got mine, my intices were gone. I was pretty disappointed, yet was really amazed.

On the same day as we made our bread, we also pilled the piles of walnuts. Since, the village's pride was walnuts, many villagers has walnuts trees and the children pick them. The pile of walnut is green, but if you hit the nuts on the ground and rip the pile, the real walnuts comes out. We had to pill the piles on the roof, thus it was really hot. It was pretty hard for me, however I was able to handle. The disadventage of pilling walnuts is, when you pill too much, between your fingernails and your finger tips gets black. I had to wash it many times to get the black mark gone.

I enjoyed alot being with Mr.Mohammed and other groups during the trip. I'm glad that I went to this trip and I was fully satisfied. I was pleasure with all the food that the Berber made for us and you should also try eating Berber's traditional food!

Ms. Wiebe is Pro!

It was the last day of WWW trip so we decided to go to shopping the a village. We hiked for two hours to get to the village. One of our teacher, Ms. Netzel, allowed us to wear comfortable shoes, such as converse. So, my best friend Mika and I wore converse for the hiking. I was talking to Mika, then I fell because the ground was slippery even though it was sands and rocks. After a hour, we rested near by the river, where all the huge rocks are. I got some alcohols on my wound and I started to throw some rocks into a puddle. After twenty minutes, we started to hike again. I started to sweat after 5 minutes. When we arrived the village, we went to a cafe and drank sodas. When we were done with drinking, we made our groups to hang out in village.

When we were hanging out, Ms. Wiebe were with us. We bought some junk foods ( Only two maximum.) and when Ms. Wiebe was trying to buy a chocolate bar, every chocolate bar she bought was rotten. After buying junk foods, we were trying to buy some souvenirs for my family. When I was trying to buy a necklace for my mom, Ms. Wiebe told me that the necklace is not a silver or gold. She told me that she was trying to help me and it really helped me a lot. We saw many mules handling the luggage or some other stuff, they looked really tired to me. I had a lot fun during shopping, because I was able to have fun with my friends also.

On the way coming back, we had to hike again with our stuff. It was really tired, however I was happy that I bought some stuff at the village. When we departed at Mr. Mohammed’s house, we had some time for free time and ate dinner. After, we celebrated out last day of WWW trip and went to sleep.

Want to know about Me?

Hello everyone,

My name is Jimin Koo and I'm from South Korea. I can speak Korean, English, and little bit of French. I'm living in Morocco, Rabat, due to my dad's business. My dad works in the company that is pretty big and famous. I go to an international school in Rabat and it's a new experience to me. Also, I love being in my school and I'm enjoying to live in Morocco. This year is going to be my fourth year living in Morocco. First I came to Rabat, things were really unusual to me, however things are getting better right now. My hobbies are to read manga, watching anime, singing, drawing, listening to music, watching movies, taking a nap and finally eating! So that was all about me~!

I moved to Morocco in the fourth grade and I’m going back to Korea when I’m in high school. For past three years, I saw many celebrations in Morocco just like Korea. Morocco has New Year celebration like Korea, however Moroccan people doesn’t celebrate Christmas because most of them are Muslim. Since I was born in South Korea, I know most of the celebrations. Korea celebrate Thanksgiving and it’s called “Chusok.” Morocco does feasting and it’s called “Ramadan.” It’s religion celebration. After Ramadan, they celebrate called “Eid.” Eid is very joyful time for Moroccans because when Eid is starting, the people can go to their friends house or they parents house and eat. In addition, during Ramadan, you can’t eat or go to friend’s house if you’re Muslim. I think Morocco has more celebrations than Korea. I think in Korea, there are ten celebrations in a year, but I think Morocco has more celebrations. Since these two countries has different celebrations, the cultures are also different. Even though I don’t know many facts about both countries, however both countries has interesting information about celebrations.

Welcome to my blog on 'Berbers in Morocco'

I've been gone for five days on WWW (Weeks Without Walls) High-Atlas Mountains trip that is close to Marrakesh, to visit the Berber villages. The Berbers are very nice and friendly. I was able to be friends with them easily. We visited three different villages and four different houses. Our class divided up to seven groups to learn about Berbers and I discovered many fascinating information about all those the seven topics. For this school year, we will be learning about traditions, dynasties, customs, and origins.