MSN

Sihame and Saad are addicted to MSN the way I was addicted to AIM in 7th grade. It is their lifeline, to their friends and any romantic (cyber) encounters they might have.

I'm talking obsessed--I'll be checking my email and if someone messages Sihame, I have to stop typing immediately and let her respond. She speaks with her friends in transliterated derija, with 3 as the 'ayn and 7 as the haa.

Once, Sihame used my phone to call her boyfriend and tell him to go on MSN! (Phone calls are expensive here...) She was very sophisticated on the phone and giggly after...she reminds me of me or any of my friends after talking to a cute boy for the first time. In some ways I can completely identify with her and in others I feel almost sorry for her; Sihame is 20 and in a few years she will be married but her only private communication or interaction is through MSN.

In Contemporary Moroccan Culture, we're studying the effects of the media on the new Muslim public sphere. It's fascinating that the internet provides access to members of the opposite sex for Moroccan teenagers; any other interactions are at school or parent-supervised. It is at once very private and illicit and also very accepted (her parents definitely know that she talks to boys on MSN). It's changing what is acceptable in a Muslim society.

Here's a question: is MSN-ing acceptable during Ramadan? Does chatting on the internet break the fast? Apparently some girls in Saudi Arabia asked the oulema (religious scholars) there. Any ideas?

Sarah