Flower for luck as Duchess has holiday tattoo with a difference
Royal couple try chatting in French as they meet rural schoolgirls during their visit to Morocco
FOR most tourists, it is a pretty souvenir from a trip to a new and vibrant culture they will never forget.
For the Duchess of Sussex, the henna “tattoo” painted on to her hand by Moroccan schoolgirls, meant rather more.
The Duchess, who visited a village in the foothills of Morocco’s High Atlas mountains with her husband yesterday, was decorated with a flower emblem on her left hand, in a gesture intended to honour her pregnancy and bring good luck to Baby Sussex.
It marked the start of a busy day for the Duke and Duchess, who spoke emphatically about the importance of girls’ education and tried to speak in their “high school” French. If it was a language competition, there was only one winner: the Duchess, who impressed schoolgirls with a stream of conversation.
The Duke, who was less bold in front of the cameras and asked only whether his young hosts could speak English, nevertheless made an impression, telling the children how heartening it was to see so many looking happy at school.
If the royal couple had missed one another while the Duchess was at her New York baby shower, they more than made up for it with a public display of affection, holding hands and touching one another’s arms, backs and necks as they went along.
Arriving in Asni, they visited one of six girls’ boarding houses run by Education For All, a charity set up in 2008 to help combat a lack of education in rural areas of Morocco.
The Duchess sat down with 17-yearold Samira Ouaadi, one of the boarders, to receive three delicate flowers painted in henna on her left hand. “How lovely,” she said. “Merci”. Samira said: “It’s tradition for pregnant women in Morocco to have a henna tattoo. It’s like the plant of para- dise so we use it to mark all major occasions.” After one concerned official asked if she wanted to wash it off immediately, the Duchess laughed and replied that it would soon dry.
Not for the first time, the Duchess’s pregnancy quickly became the theme of the day, with girls singing songs wishing peace for her baby.
Hearing about the progress made by the charity in convincing Moroccan families of the importance of educating their girls, the Duchess told pupils: “What’s happening here and so many places all over the world with more girls getting an education, it changes the future and changes the future for everyone, not just the girls.”
Looking at a board containing student biographies, the Duke noted: “This is very interesting, they always mention the father, ‘my father wanted me to do this’, ‘my father that, etc’.”
“Yes, that paternal narrative is very strong,” replied his wife.
In a second engagement at Lycée Qualifiant Grand Atlas school, the Duke asked teenagers: “Should you be at school on a Sunday?”
Told ‘no’, he joked: “Well, we’re very sorry for that. By a show of hands, who was encouraged to come to school by their father?”
Around two thirds of the girls raised their hands.
Before flying back to Rabat by helicopter, the Duke presented Michael Mchugo, co-founder of Education For All, an MBE, awarded in the New Year’s Honours for services to improving gender equality in Morocco, and read out a citation on behalf on the Queen.
In a short evening reception at the British ambassador’s residence in Rabat, the Duchess wore a bespoke Dior gown that appeared to have Moroccan influence. There, she told a group of female executives and entrepreneurs: “Women have to challenge everywhere in the world.”
Today, the Duke and Duchess will meet King Mohammed VI, visit a stables to see how equine therapy is helping disadvantaged children and attend a cooking session.