In Morocco, take out your phone at a wedding… the “commandos” step in
At some weddings in Morocco, specialized teams are tasked with preventing guests from taking photos or filming. These teams, commonly referred to as “commandos,” are hired by families who want to prevent images of the ceremony from circulating without their consent.
Introduced around three years ago, the service is particularly in demand during the summer, a period when weddings are highly concentrated. Its principle is simple: remind guests that taking pictures is prohibited at the organizers’ request and intervene when a phone is taken out to photograph or record the ceremony.
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But the assignment can quickly become delicate. Loubna Najib, who previously ran this type of team in Casablanca, told Hespress that the interventions sometimes caused tensions with guests, as well as between the families of the newlyweds when the rules had not been clearly established before the celebration.
The situation became even more complicated when the agents were asked to request the deletion of photos or videos that had already been recorded. They then found themselves directly confronting the owners of the phones, in a situation that, according to the former professional, went beyond simply monitoring compliance with the instructions.
Can a guest be forced to delete their photos?
It is precisely on this point that the limits of the system become apparent. Loubna Najib believes that the contracts concluded between these private companies and the families are not always sufficient to provide a legal framework for this type of intervention.
According to her, the absence of a specific framework leaves the teams exposed in the event of a conflict, particularly when they have to intervene regarding the use of a phone or ask a guest to delete images that have already been recorded.
The difficulties encountered ultimately led the former manager to abandon this activity and give up developing her company. She also says that demand in her sector declined after a strong initial enthusiasm when the concept was launched.
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She now calls for the rights and obligations of these teams, organizers and guests to be clearly defined. For behind the principle of a wedding without images being shared against the wishes of those concerned lies a more sensitive question: how far can a family go to enforce its privacy during the ceremony?
