Why Tourists Sometimes Struggle to “Do the Right Thing”

Sidewalk Cafe in Morocco Source: Adam Jones/CC BY-SA 2.0

Visitors to the Moroccan city of Fez find its streets lined with sidewalk cafes. Throughout the day and evening hours, small groups of men sit at outdoor tables, drinking coffee, mint tea, and Fanta.

If a woman sits at an outdoor table, she’ll probably sit a long time before a waiter comes to take her order. Or a waiter may never come.

If the woman is a tourist and is unfamiliar with Morocco’s cultural norms, she may become irritated by the waiter’s tepid response to her desire to simply order a beverage. Meanwhile, the cafe’s waiters and male patrons may become irritated by the foreign woman’s flagrant violation of an unwritten rule known to all Moroccans: Single women are not supposed to sit outside at a cafe; they should sit