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afrol News, 22 March - In Morocco, you don't write about the private life of members of the Sharifian dynasty. No wonder that the Moroccan press was somewhat perplex at the official statement about 38-year-old King Mohammed VI marrying 24-year-old computer engineer Salma Bennani yesterday. Journalists recently have been imprisoned for writing about a possible sale of a royal palace. Thus, when King Mohammed VI announced his engagement to Mrs. Bennani in October, the news made greater headlines in the royalty-saturated international press than in Morocco proper. Only by announcing his wedding, Mohammed broke with royal traditions. His father's matrimony to his first of two wives, Fatima, was only made public when his second wife, Latifa, expected children. With a career woman in the Sharifian royal house - set to become a visible woman - the young King openly demonstrates his will to give the dynasty a face-lift. Salma Bennani yesterday became Princess Salma in a private, religious ceremony at the royal palace in Rabat. She will however not obtain the title of Queen, a non-existent institution in the Moroccan monarchy. Actually, even a princess title breaks with tradition. Princess Salma already has gotten a much more visible status than her predecessors. Royal wives, including Mohammed's mother, have been kept hidden in the royal sanctuaries. Mohammed VI has even indicated he will stick to one wife and not practice polygamy, as all his ancestors. Mohammed's openheartedness and the granting of a Princess title indicate that Princess Salma is to play the role of a "Moroccan First Lady" - also an open rupture with traditions. Princess Salma's origin, outside the traditional Moroccan dignitaries also astonishes. She is the daughter of a common teacher, El Haj Abdelhamid Bennani, from the city of Fez, making her a "Moroccan Cinderella". She has already ascended to become a new type of role model for young Moroccan women, tired of the country's male chauvinistic structures, which the modern, young King is urging to eliminate. And on 12 April, the Royal Couple will be breaking with the past again. Large scale public marriage celebrations, more common to non-Muslim royal houses, are planned in the southern city of Marrakech. Foreign guests are invited to a pompous ceremony in the ancient town. There is talk of inviting European royal houses, although none of them have confirmed receiving an invitation yet. All these celebrity news, which would turn the national press upside-down in any other country, is barely noted in the Moroccan press. Only short and factual notes were made. The Tangier-based daily 'Les Nouvelles du Nord', for example, featured an almost hidden, two-paragraph article without photos, simply titled "The King marries". Besides very basic facts, the article with astonishment mentioned that "photos of the country's First Lady are flooding the international press." Thus, the royal face-lift seems more of an international scoop than a signal to the Moroccan society that the King now is becoming an ordinary mortal. Ali Lmrabet, editor of the weekly 'Demain' magazine, still remains in jail for having written an article entitled "The Shirkat's palace is said to be on sale." Princess Salma might however become important to a new Moroccan generation of women if she decides to keep a high media profile in future. Sources:
Based on press reports and afrol archives
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