The Moroccan Student Society: celebrating our roots

What are Atay, Halwa and Zellige? The Moroccan Student Society (MSS), one of the first clubs to celebrate Moroccan and North African culture here at Storrs, can tell you all about it. 

Speaking of culture, the MSS held their first event of the semester on Sept. 16, with Atay night. Where students bonded over the delicious Atay (Moroccan mint tea) and homemade Halwa (Moroccan sweets) while playing card games. There was a second Atay night earmarked on Oct. 20, where MSS will dive even deeper into Moroccan history with a presentation about Al-Maghreb, a region encompassing much of North Africa, with a trivia night straight after. 

Adam El Khalfi, the club’s president and fifth-semester analytics and information management student, founded the MSS as an avenue for students to learn about the culture and traditions of his native Morocco and North Africa as a whole, and for Moroccans at UConn to keep in touch with their heritage. 

“[MSS is] for a lot of other Moroccans to connect with their roots, stay with their roots and have Moroccan pride and learn about what is Morocco and what is North Africa,” El Khalfi said. 

Eel-Yas Khattabi, a fifth-semester physiology and neurobiology and exercise science double major, said the Muslim and Arab community at UConn jumped at the opportunity to attend MSS events. 

“The Muslim community, Arab community around campus is very tight knit,” Khattabi said. “So pretty much everybody learned about us pretty quickly and once they learned about it, they were pretty excited to join.” 

MSS secretary Noura Tazi, a seventh-semester ASL and speech language and hearing science double major, stresses again that anyone can join the MSS to learn about North African culture.  

“It’s a way for us to showcase Moroccan culture, tradition and just North Africa in general,” Tazi said. Tazi emphasizes that the MSS is open to people from all across the world.  

For El Khalfi, the whole process of creating the MSS and organizing events with his board members has been a fun process. “Seeing the club, you know, form into the real thing before our eyes, like it’s been really enjoyable,” he said. 

The MSS has a wide variety of events planned for the upcoming year and beyond. On Nov. 17, The MSS will hold a banquet in the Student Union Ballroom, from 7 to 9 p.m., where people can sample Moroccan dishes while listening to a guest speaker enchant tales about local Moroccan culture. On Dec. 1, they will host a Zellige night, where people can come in and make Moroccan inspired tiles and coasters.  

These events are all listed on the MSS UConntact for this semester. According to Ziyad Abbach, a fifth-semester data science student, the MSS are planning to dedicate a night to making the Maghrebi dish Tagine, a North African cooking vessel and the slow-cooked stew made inside it. There are plans to host an event akin to “Hot Ones,” where people sample different dishes to see who can handle the heat. MSS also wishes to hold sports tournaments in soccer or basketball, but with their own twist. 

Speaking of basketball, on Oct. 1, MSS hosted a 3-on-3 basketball tournament at the UConn Armory, where players had to ball out in thobes, long-sleeve robes that go down to one’s ankles. If playing 3-on-3 halfcourt ball wasn’t enough of a challenge, the ankle-length robes everyone had to wear provided an extra hurdle for everyone to jump over. 

People turned out in droves to the Armory, either to watch the game from the sideline or to play in teams with their friends. Some brought thobes from home, and the MSS provided loaned thobes for those who needed one. All the team names bore references to Arab and Islamic culture, from the Wudu Warriors to the Doofaar Dribblers, and the twin combo of the Halal Hustlers and the Halal Habibis 

The atmosphere was infectious, thanks to raucous crowd cheering on their friends and the excellent play-by-play of Yazeed Hasan, a fifth-semester computer science major, who was bringing the energy with his commentary and remarks, such as telling the Khan Academy team to “go back to school.” 

Haseeb Chaudhry, a third-semester physiology and biology student, was a Khan Academy player, whose team bowed out in the first round to the Halal Habibis. Speaking on the challenges of playing in thobes, he cited movement as the biggest constraint. 

“Movement man, the movement when I’m trying to switch,” Chaudhry said. “I can’t do that because the thobe stopes you from moving.” Despite that, he said, “It was aggressive, it was competitive, it was strong… I got punched and pushed around but I punched and pushed them around too.” 

In the final game of the tournament, the Non Chalant Moroccans, comprised of El Khalfi, Khattabi and Ismail El Khou, won out against runners up BBB in a scintillating performance. El Khou, a third-semester biological sciences student, put up an incredible performance in the final matchup, scoring points left and right to win MVP of the match.