When did you last go on an adventure with a group of friends? When did you last go on an adventure with a group of strangers? Our modern lifestyles do not leave us much space to do things we used to enjoy as children, like spending seemingly endless holidays or going on school trips with strangers that would become friends.
Photo by Zineb Koutten, Courtesy of Out of Office Creative Retreats.
“It's a very masculine energy to be competing, and I think a feminine energy is to be nurturing and community driven, and having this idea of gathering and sharing. I wanted to create that space.” - Sally Ghaly
In 2022, Egyptian Canadian creative producer Sally Ghaly needed time away from the corporate world. She joined a creative retreat at the coast of Western Sahara for a month, disconnecting from daily life to reconnect with her creativity. “After that, I really felt like I needed to do it again, but surrounded by more feminine energy,” Ghaly tells OkayAfrica. “But everything I found was ‘surfing, yoga, wellness.’ Nothing was rooted in creativity.”
Ghaly decided to build her own retreat and in September 2023, she ran the first edition of Out of Office Creative Retreats. She makes it sound remarkably easy: 13 women traveling through Morocco, spending time in the Agafay desert and the medina of Marrakech, exchanging their respective crafts with each other and immersing themselves in Moroccan artistry.
Photo by Zineb Koutten, Courtesy of Out of Office Creative Retreats.
In each edition, Sally Ghaly welcomes participants with an opening ceremony and sends them off with a gratitude session six days later. Her co-creators share their craft or creative medium in sessions that range from aromatherapy to poetry, dance, weaving, painting, leather crafting, poetry, music, and more.
Why only women? “My industry is very male dominated, and I felt like there wasn't enough space for female creatives,” explains Ghaly. “Often on set, it would be me, maybe the stylist or hair [and] makeup artist, and the models, but everyone else was male. Instead of uplifting each other, we almost had our elbows out, feeling like there's not enough space for us.”
Moroccan producer, model, and art director Rania Malek, who has been a co-creator of Out of Office Retreats since its first edition, says that attending an all-women retreat was life-changing. “It’s the most beautiful and necessary aspect of it,” she asserts. “In today’s world, women have more responsibilities than ever — we work harder, carry more, and often don’t have time to simply be with each other. We are losing that sense of sacred gathering.”Photo by Zineb Koutten, Courtesy of Out of Office Creative Retreats.
"Here, we do not ask if it is safe to be soft/ We call each other sister, not by blood/ but by the silent understanding of what it means/ to be a woman in a world that hardens us." - Rania Malek
“There’s a unique power in being surrounded by women,” says Moroccan stylist, designer and fellow co-creator Naïla Charkaoui, who led a leatherwork session in the second edition of the retreat, passing down a skill that runs in her family. “We have this unspoken understanding of each other, a bond that doesn’t need words. Being in this all-women space felt like a true celebration of the strength we carry as women, a space where vulnerability was met with empathy and support.”
Why Morocco? It has been Ghaly’s chosen home for the past year. “It’s definitely the place I feel most inspired in,” she says. “There's this stigma around Morocco not being safe for female travelers, which is absolutely not correct. I want to combat and break that stigma and facilitate women coming to Morocco in a way that they feel comfortable.”
Photo by Zineb Koutten, Courtesy of Out of Office Creative Retreats.
The weaving workshops are run by Zineb Achoubie, a Moroccan contemporary artist who incorporates weaving in her artwork. She teaches the craft, the symbolism, and the heritage of weaving.
Ultimately, her long-term goal is expanding Out of Office Creative Retreats to Egypt, her parents’ home country, and South Africa, both of which are equally stigmatized yet deeply inspiring in Ghaly’s experience.
For now, Out of Office Creative Retreats’ fourth edition returns to Morocco from April 13 - 18, 2025. In the spirit of Ramadan and coinciding with women’s month, Ghaly is offering one scholarship to a deserving creative woman who would like to join the experience.
“Ramadan is the month of charity and supporting your community, so this is a beautiful time to offer a scholarship,” she says. It’s a “participant package” that includes everything from accommodation and meals to all creative sessions, except for the travel to and from Morocco. Applications are open until March 17; to apply, send an email with a portfolio and a 90-second video introducing your creative work and why it is important to join this retreat. “If you consider yourself a creative — whether you’re a chef, a curator, or do crochet — you're welcome to apply,” she says.
Ghaly encourages people to join the retreat alone and open themselves to the other participants. Witnessing small moments of vulnerability in the in-between — dancing while waiting for dinner, singing on a bus ride — is her favorite part. “People are even more able to share with strangers than they are with people that have known them longer,” she says.
Photo by Zineb Koutten, Courtesy of Out of Office Creative Retreats.
“Some of my favorite moments were the storytelling circles, where we sat together and shared our experiences. Each woman had a completely different path, yet somehow we all saw pieces of ourselves in each other. As someone who can be a bit reserved, I found myself laughing, crying, and sharing without fear.” - Naïla Charkaoui
The fantastic feedback Ghaly receives from her co-creators is closely linked to one of her key lessons: memories are made when we have free time, as opposed to the finite time slots we grant ourselves before we move on to the next thing.
“I read this article about how we have a hard time forming core memories because we're so bogged down on scheduling,” she says. “So I’m trying to create an agile, flexible experience because I want people to just enjoy, breathe, and know that they’re being held. They can just be present.”
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