Veiled Love: the film that...s causing a scandal in Morocco

"Veiled Love", or "Hijab el Hob", tells the story of a young Moroccan woman who chooses to have sex before marriage. Film maker Aziz Salamy introduces us to Batoul, a young, well brought-up woman, who with her boyfriend, decides to embark on a sexual relationship which is both enflamed and marred by their not being married. A relatively harmless story, even in Morocco, but made shocking by the fact that the young woman wears a hijab... Especially as the director chooses to show the couple kissing and taking a bath together. Our Observer explains why some Moroccans consider the film an attack on Islam.

• The film came out at the end of January and has just been showcased at the Belgian Mons International Love Film Festival. The blurb: "Batoul, 28, is a girl with a happy family life and a budding career in medicine. The day she meets Hamza, she finds herself breaking all the rules she once preached, to live a passionate love with the man who obsesses her..." (source).
• "In Morocco, a woman who has premarital sex is called a prostitute"
• Abdelhalim Talhaoui, 28, is a journalism student in Casablanca. He alerted us to this story.
• People are talking about this film a lot. Leaders of several Islamic parties have even attacked it directly in the media. I went to see it at the cinema and personally I wasn't shocked. But you have to understand that Moroccan society is very conservative and hypocritical. In Morocco, a woman who has premarital sexual relations is called a prostitute. It doesn't bother people if a woman doesn't wear the hijab. But the veil is a religious symbol, it's conjures up deeper meanings. That's why the film is considered an attack on Islam.
• Everyone knows that the narrative of the film is quite credible. But I think the director should have treated the subject with a little more tact to avoid shocking the country. He wanted it to be talked about, and it worked."
• Ennaharonline/ France 24