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Rabat – A male French tourist wore “female” clothes in the middle of Marrakesh’s famous bazaar, Djemaa El Fna, while visiting the area with eight of his friends, leading the police to arrest all nine foreign nationals.
According to a security source cited by Yabaladi, preliminary investigations have revealed that the group was participating in a bachelor party, in which the groom had been made to wear women’s clothes as a joke.
The source said the group’s abandonment of the riad they had been staying at and their decision to visit Djemaa El Fna in women’s clothes was “irresponsible and disruptive to public morals.”
The tourists have been taken into custody of the local police and authorities are in the process of verifying their identities. They will be released after they have been questioned further about the motives of their actions and have formally apologized for their behavior, the source said.
Last July, a mob of at least six men attacked a trans woman in Fez for wearing a white dress. The altercation lasted for at least two minutes and over 30 people saw the beating as it occurred.
While Morocco’s penal code outlaws homosexuality under article 489 of Morocco’s penal code, being transgender is not illegal in Morocco. In fact, sex-change operations are legal and possible in the country, especially in Casablanca, where French gynecologist named George Burou lived for nearly 20 years perfecting the science of turning men into women.
Noor Talbi, Morocco’s most famous belly dancer, is also a trans woman and is considered a celebrity in Morocco, among other transgendered public figures.
