Moroccan Pop Singer Manal Benchlikha & The Infamous Kiss
Moroccan Pop Singer Manal Benchlikha & her husband
When Moroccan pop singer Manal Benchalikha posted a pic of herself kissing her husband on her Instagram profile, it sparked widespread controversy on Moroccan social media, calling her all of the names under the sun. Thank God they are legally married. If he were her boyfriend, she would be behind bars right now.
According to the religious and actual laws, it is illegal for unmarried members of the opposite sex to hang out alone together in the same place. This law enables nosy neighbors to call the police on anyone suspected of breaking this law.
This mentality enabled many close-minded guys (God knows that we have so many in Morocco) full of hatred and jealousy to create backlash for her online, especially because not many Moroccan girls have open-minded husbands who would take these kinds of pictures and let her post online and support her as a singer. Regardless, the power of the religious law considers singing and dancing, and all entertainment in general, as haram (prohibited by Islam). Every penny you make from this is haram. This rule is the ultimate nightmare of all of the performers in the Arab world. If you are an artist in the Arab world according to the religion of Islam, you're flying on a one-way ticket to hell.
I am sure; as a Moroccan, I don't know many, and neither do many of my fellow citizens. Of course, the husband got his share of toxic and poisonous comments: "Dude! Man up! How do you dare show yourself and your wife in this position?" I couldn't believe it! We are in 2021, and people are still making these kinds of comments as if they were filming a sex tape. "Are we in Morocco or the USA?" another one commented.
"We are in a Muslim country, show some respect," "Show some respect B*** generation of Netflix," "You don't differentiate between your freedom and nudity," "I follow you on Instagram to check your latest music, not your sexual life."
I tried to quote the least vulgar comments of the majority of dirty ones, and believe me, if you give a chance to any of these haters to leave Morocco, you can't believe what they are capable of doing. I witnessed the European police remove many of these kinds of repressed guys from bars who had freshly moved to Europe and couldn't handle the freedom of limitless drinking and having sex far away from the eyes of the hypocritical Moroccan society.
On the other hand, I am sure that this singer was aware of what would happen by posting it. It was the best marketing strategy to promote her new song, "Call the Police." Part of her album 360, Manal chose to return to her Moroccan origins and evaluate her life as a liberated Moroccan woman living in modern Moroccan society by highlighting a range of topics in which society prefers to remain silent using all music styles from pop to reggae with hints of oriental and house music. While her wish comes true, the Moroccan Drama continues…
By Simo bb
