July 13, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 2, 1423

RABAT, July 12: Breaking with tradition, Morocco’s King Mohammed began public celebrations on Friday of his recent wedding, signalling a will to modernise the Muslim country and the monarchy, analysts and diplomats said.

In another unprecedented move, the 38-year-old monarch also permitted publication of photographs of his bride, computer engineer Salma Bennani, signalling a new era for women in the male-dominated society.

The king married Bennani, 24, in March in a private religious ceremony at the Royal Palace in Rabat.

In a further departure from tradition, the bride is from a middle class background and met King Mohammed at a party in 1999 when he was crown prince. Her father is a school teacher in Morocco’s spiritual capital Fez.

Public celebrations, initially scheduled for April, were put off because of Palestinian-Israeli violence and moved to the capital Rabat from the red-walled tourist city of Marrakesh.

It was the first time in 400 years of the Alawite dynasty that a royal wedding had been publicly announced. Previous marriages had been kept secret and the brides unknown.

“This weekend is unlike any other: It’s the first time a Moroccan monarch has got married while opening his palace gates,” the independent L’Economiste newspaper wrote in an editorial.

It saw King Mohammed’s move as reminiscent of his grandfather’s decision to allow his daughters to appear in public wearing suits after the country gained independence from France in 1956.—Reuters