My mother is Egyptian, so studying abroad in a MENA country, while being an Egyptian woman, definitely impacted my time abroad. Because of my appearance (I look very Egyptian), people every day assumed I was Moroccan, and when they discovered I wasn’t, they asked me about my ethnicity. So I had to get used to discussing my ethnicity multiple times on a daily basis. This wasn’t something I was used to or completely comfortable with at first. However, having an adjacent cultural background made me feel so accepted, and at home in Morocco, I could blend in as a native, and this was really cool to experience because it felt like I could navigate life as a local in a lot of ways. My cultural identity also gave me another layer of perspective that some of my other American students didn’t have, as they hadn’t been exposed to the MENA culture in the same way that I had.

I would advise students to be prepared to discuss their identity and to understand that when people ask about their identity, it is out of genuine curiosity and without ill intent. Discussing race and ethnicity in Morocco doesn’t have the same connotations as it does in America. For example, people assuming my ethnicity or race could be perceived as offensive in America, but in Morocco, that is not the case. Talking with my study abroad program directors and staff was super helpful in expanding my perspective and helping me to understand the cultural differences between America and Morocco.