MOROCCO

Morocco's Rif region tells a story that encapsulates the country's male crisis. For decades, the Rif's Amazigh men have cultivated cannabis — kif — as their primary economic activity, making Morocco one of the world's largest cannabis producers. These men are simultaneously criminals and breadwinners, living in a legal grey zone that the state tolerates because there is no alternative economy to replace it. The 2016-2017 Hirak Rif protests, sparked by the death of a fishmonger crushed in a garbage truck, revealed the rage of men whose region has been neglected since independence.

The migration pipeline — from Moroccan villages through Spain to the rest of Europe — has shaped masculine identity for generations. Boys in cities like Nador, Tangier, and Beni Mellal grow up watching older boys attempt the crossing, some drowning in the Mediterranean, others making it to become the remittance-sending heroes the family depends on. This migration lottery defines masculine worth: the man who makes it to Europe is celebrated; the man who stays is pitied. King Mohammed VI's modernization program has created visible progress in Casablanca and Rabat, but in the rural bled (countryside), men live in a Morocco that modernity hasn't reached, where the donkey is still transport and the nearest doctor is a day's journey.