A POPULAR holiday destination for Brits has lifted laws that previously banned unmarried couples from sharing a hotel room. The rules have been lifted by the government, who described them as being "based in the distant past". The rules used to be in place in Morocco, where hotels were previously required to request to see a marriage license from couples before they were allowed to stay together.
However, it was very loosely enforced, with a lot of places turning a blind eye to the rule. Nevertheless, it was technically in place and resorts risked "heavy fines" for allowing unmarried pairs to stay overnight, according to Cross Culture Love . They explained that the law came from penal code Article 490.
which stated: "Every sexual relation between a man and a woman not bound by wedlock is a crime of corruption punished by imprisonment from a month up to a year." However, they also said that such strict punishments were rarely, if ever, enforced and that couples would merely be turned away by hotels if they thought they were unmarried. Additionally, when it was enforced, it was more commonly Moroccan couples who were affected, with foreign travellers often overlooked.
Now, however, the rules will not apply to anyone, according to the New Arab , who had the news revealed to them by a five-star hotel in the country's capital Rabat. The source told them: "The police contacted us on Saturday, 25 May, and informed us that marriage contracts are no longer required for unmarried coupl.
