Last month TIME contract photographer Yuri Kozyrev and I went to Rabat and Casablanca to report on a story about the rise of Political Islam in the countries of the Arab Spring. As with Tunisia and Egypt, free elections in Morocco have brought to power an Islamist party, the Justice and Development Party (PJD). But these, as we discovered, are not your father’s Islamists. They defy the Western stereotype of bushy-bearded, wild-eyed religious fanatics: Morocco’s Islamists are not seeking to take their country back to some ancient golden age, they are trying to figure how to bring it to the 21st century without losing its religious moorings. In this, they are similar to Islamists now heading governments in Tunis and Cairo. The pursuit and attainment of political power have forced these parties to abandon radical ideas and distance themselves from their lunatic fringes. Instead, they are moving to the political center.
Morocco has drawn tourists for centuries, and to most visitors cities like Rabat and Casablanca are a pleasant combination of the modern and the ancient. In this set of images, Yuri captures both aspects of the country.
Yuri Kozyrev is a contract photographer for TIME and was just named the 2011 Photographer of the Year in the Pictures of the Year International competition.
March 2012. Casablanca's Mohammed V Square. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. Passengers are seen on a tram in Rabat, Morocco. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. Young Moroccans hang out in front of the Casbah of Oudaya, in a 12th-century fortress in Rabat, Morocco.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. A slum known as the Village of the Ball, Douar Elkora in Rabat, Morocco.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. Mustapha Khalfi riding a tram in Rabat, Morocco. Khalfi, Morocco’s Information Minister and member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (known by its French acronym PJD) once worked in the U.S. Congress as a Fulbright Scholar. He compares his Islamist party to the U.S. Republican Party.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. Nezha El Ouafi and Aicha Elabbasy, in Rabat, Morocco. The two women are PJD members. El Ouafi (in a headscarf) is a member of parliament and Elabbasy runs the party’s social-media strategy. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. Families spend their time outside in Sale, Morocco.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. A slum known as the Village of the Ball, Douar Elkora in Rabat, Morocco.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. Sahb Elcaid, a slum in the town of Sale, near Rabat, Morocco.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. A Moroccan man stands next to the portraits of King Mohammed in the old souk in Rabat, Morocco. The monarch is widely accepted as “commander of the faithful,” which makes any direct criticism of him close to sacrilegious. But there is widespread dissatisfaction over corruption among his close aides.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. A slum known as the Village of the Ball, Douar Elkora in Rabat, Morocco.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. Rachid Ait Yahi, a 28-year-old Casablanca resident, is unemployed and whiles away his time skateboarding with his friends at the Park de la Ligue Arabe in the city center in Casablanca.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. Lahen Daoudi, Morocco’s Minister of Higher Education and senior PJD leader, pictured in Rabat, Morocco, says his country needs more technology and scientific skills, not more Islamic studies.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. At the shores of the Atlantic in Rabat, Morocco, a graveyard for illustrious Moroccans.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. Street Musicians, Rabat, Morocco.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIMEMarch 2012. A slum known as the Village of the Ball, Douar Elkora in Rabat, Morocco.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
