Detlef and myself were walking the streets of Marrakech yesterday when suddenly, towards my right, a young Moroccon man suddenly started beating a girl.
He first hit her through the face with his open hand and then kicked her on the leg so that she buckled under the force.
I was over there in a flash and pushed the guy away repeating: "You dont hit a girl like that." He kept on pushing back against me, saying something in Derija (the local Arabic dialect).
Meanwhile the girl started crying.
By then a middle-aged Moroccon lady and her husband arrived and tried to get me away from there. Trying to convince me all was ok. An older Moroccon man arrived holding the guy, trying to calm him down.
The kept telling me: "Don't worry they are married." Mariee in French.
I have no idea how that was supposed to make things better.
I replied saying: "Divorcee!" Divorce. It was the only French word I could think of in the situation.
And then suddenly all was calm. The Lady and her husband walked off and the guy was talking with the girl, still not nicely, trying to convince her to take his arm.
We were abolutely powerless and shocked at the blind eye everybody turned. According to them all was right.
We kind of hang around for a little while till we were sure the guy calmed down and then left. Still shocked by the experience.
While everybody turned a blind eye it was a real cultural eye-opener for us.
Unbelievable!
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