Globalisation, mobile phones and forbidden romance in Morocco

Abstract

Globalisation in the form of must-have mobile phones affects gender and generational relations in the Middle East and North Africa. As this new form of communication technology spreads to secondary and university students, it impacts the traditionally strong institution of the Middle Eastern family. In Morocco, gender relations and generational dynamics are changing as this technology breaks down traditional spatial and associational boundaries between young men and women. Membership in a global citizenry offers young Moroccans both status and western patterns of romance. This study demonstrates that young women and young men utilise mobile phones for different purposes. Mobile phones facilitate behaviour that young people know violates Moroccan social norms, but which are permitted by the western mores conveyed through global media. Our research in Morocco may have resonance in the rest of the Middle East but differs from what research reports in Europe.