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Rabat – UNESCO has announced that Morocco’s bid to inscribe the Moroccan caftan on the 2025 Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity is scheduled for examination in December.
According to a statement from the UN agency, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage will review the nomination during its twentieth session, set to take place in New Delhi, India, from December 8 to 13.
Rooted in centuries of Moroccan history
Submitted under the title “The Moroccan Caftan: Art, Customs, and Skills,” the file falls within the representative list that recognizes the diversity of cultural practices and craftsmanship passed on within communities.
Richly detailed and documented, the nomination presents the caftan as a traditional Moroccan garment that has been shaped by centuries of evolving dress practices, dating back to the medieval period.
It describes the caftan as a creation rooted in the expertise of master artisans and tailors influenced by Arab, Amazigh, and Jewish cultures.
The garment’s distinctive decorative identity is the result of techniques such as sfifa with silk threads, hand embroidery using silk or gold, and embellishment with pearls and sequins.
The file notes that the caftan’s refinement is made possible by the work of specialized craftspeople, brocade weavers, traditional tailors, sfifa makers, button makers, embroiderers, and apprentices, whose skills vary across regions.
These craftspeople continue to develop the garment’s aesthetic richness through manual techniques transmitted across generations.
UNESCO also notes the caftan’s global reach in recent years, crediting its renewed popularity to a new generation of Moroccan designers who reinterpret it for contemporary fashion while maintaining its traditional foundations and acknowledging the role of skilled artisans.
The UNESCO committee will evaluate 54 nomination files for inclusion on the Representative List during its December session, including six extension requests for previously inscribed elements to involve additional communities within the same country.
It will also consider files related to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices.
UNESCO continues to expand its three international lists under the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The lists highlight the variety of living heritage worldwide and the efforts invested in its protection. To date, 788 elements practiced across 150 countries have been inscribed.
UNESCO notes that intangible cultural heritage encompasses oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, and the knowledge and skills recognized by communities as part of their cultural identity.
Countering Algeria’s relentless cultural appropriation campaigns
Unlike physical monuments or sites, this heritage is “living.” It is passed from one generation to another and continually adapts to societal changes, fostering a sense of belonging, stimulating creativity, and encouraging intercultural dialogue.
The nomination also reignites a long-running cultural dispute with Algeria, whose institutions and media outlets have repeatedly attempted to claim the caftan as part of their own heritage despite the absence of historical, terminological, or artisanal foundations linking the garment to Algeria.
Moroccan designers, historians, and cultural specialists have long demonstrated that these attempts amount to cultural appropriation aimed at rewriting a well-documented heritage that is unmistakably Moroccan in origin, evolution, and craftsmanship.
The controversy resurfaces regularly, especially whenever Morocco receives international recognition for its traditional arts, prompting critics to accuse Algeria of trying to capitalize on Morocco’s cultural prestige rather than developing authentic narratives of its own heritage.
