Moroccans turn to tradition

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RABAT, Dec 18 (Reuters) Visiting relatives in northeast Morocco, social networking Touria was surprised when a woman took issue with her appearance.

''I was wearing the usual thing, jeans and a T-shirt, and she says: 'Don't you have the money for a djellaba?' I told her I'm free to wear what I want.'' Such stories are common in Morocco where more young women are donning the loose djellaba robe and a headscarf, reversing a tendency by the previous generation to wear western dress.

It appears the kingdom is succumbing to a wave of political Islam imported from the Middle East that aims to unite Muslims under sharia, or Islamic law, and reject Western secular values.

A visit to an average Moroccan town suggests the scarves worn by some young women are inspired by fashions further east, fitting tightly to the head and covering the neck completely.

Long beards favoured by conservative Muslims, once hardly seen in the Maghreb, are a common sight in poor areas.

Prayers are broadcast in taxis, shops and banks. Newspapers speak of moral vigilantes patrolling beaches and upbraiding sunbathing couples. Office workers tell of pressure from colleagues to observe the fast at Ramadan.

According to a survey by the Sunergia Institute for L'Economiste newspaper this year, close to half of young Moroccans consider themselves religious conservatives and 42 percent of those agree religion should guide political parties.

The tendency for people to wear their religion on their sleeves can be traced back to social upheavals that have left much of the population seeking safety in traditional values, local analysts say.

Migration to the large towns has weakened family and clan ties that offered security and continuity in the Muslim country.

''This situation of uncertainty creates the need for protection and to belong to a group that is expressed through a return to conformism,'' said sociologist Omrane Abderrahim.

ABANDONED Morocco languishes in 123rd place out of 177 countries in the UN Human Development Index, which measures factors like child mortality and access to health and education.

Free market reforms to spur the economy have not yet solved high unemployment and jobless graduates stage angry protests almost every week in Rabat to demand government jobs.

''Young people today are hit by the social disease of unemployment. They feel abandoned and social fragility dominates their thinking,'' said sociologist Youssef Sadik.

HOUSING SQUEEZE Relatively cheap housing in the city known as the Big Easy lured those who could no longer afford sky-high rent in other literary hotspots like New York and San Francisco. But after the storm that flooded 80 percent of the city, homes and jobs disappeared, problems that still threaten the recovery as the population remains at half the pre-storm number.

Neighborhoods popular with the artistic community, like the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny and Bywater, did not flood. But rents there have risen by 50 to 100 percent, said author Robert Smallwood, who is also executive director of the Louisiana Writers' Foundation.

''If writers were scraping by with odd jobs, they can hardly make it now,'' he said.

His foundation and Habitat for Humanity teamed up in an effort to secure lots and build low-income housing to assist writers and their families. It's a similar plan to the Musicians Village begun by Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis.

To raise funds, the foundation in November recreated Truman Capote's famous black-and-white ball, which was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York in 1966. The 2006 version was in New Orleans, the birthplace of the author of ''In Cold Blood.'' NONFICTION SHIFTS TO FICTION Katrina is an unavoidable touchstone for New Orleans writers as they get back to their craft.

Since the disaster, it's been largely a subject of nonfiction, such as Douglas Brinkley's tome ''The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast'' and ''The Five People You Meet In Hell: Surviving Katrina,'' Smallwood's tale of French Quarter denizens who stayed put while most citizens evacuated.

Now, the storm and its aftermath are fodder for fiction, said Biguenet, who lost 2,500 books when his home flooded.

''Rising Water,'' his play about a couple trapped in their attic after Katrina who must make their way to their roof, has attracted national attention.

Brinks' poetry is filled with explorations of life, family and death post-Katrina.

''Only now are we returning to our creative writing to try to comprehend what exactly has happened to us and our fellow New Orleanians,'' said Biguenet, 57.

He describes his city as a cultural island in America that managed to maintain its unique French, African, Spanish and Caribbean character as well as its love of conversation. That fostered its literary scene.

Said Smallwood: ''It's important to save this, because this is part of the soul of the whole country, to be able to have writers and artists and poets exist and create and maintain our culture.''