Roman bathing in Morocco

Friday night we went to the Hamaam in Meknes. Wow what an interesting experience. I don't think Ive been in a room with so many naked strangers in my life, even in the LV drama department.
The hamaam is the Moroccan bath house. It can be a Roman type, which is like a steam room with buckets of water, or a Turkish style with pools that you sit in. We went to the Roman style hamaam. Typically there are 3 rooms - the hot room, the medium room, and the cold room. You walk into the hamaam and there is a seating area where you strip and leave your clothes. You must keep on your underwear, but nothing else. We tried going in with undershirts and they made us strip them off in the medium room and them took them away. The cold room is the first room you enter and it is slightly warmer than outside, which is freezing!!!! Next you enter the medium room, where most people hang out. We stayed in this room, which was steaming, but comfortable. The hot room was so hot it was hard to breathe in the steam, but women were in that room too. We sat on short tiles benches that lines the walls and women (in only undies mind you) carried over buckets of hot and cold water. We were told to mix the temperatures and wash ourselves.
At first we didn't do anything but stare. We were practically naked, with 20 or so conservative Muslim women staring back at us all in their underwear. At first I was self conscious, but I got over that real quick when one of the women came over, sat next to me, and began scrubbing me. No joke! Here I am, with a naked woman holding my arm out on her chest and scrubbing my dead skin off. I was more than shocked, but none of the other Moroccans were, so I assumed this was normal. The woman didn't even react to the nakedness around her and found it completely normal to push my hand to her chest while scrubbing me. Then, she scrubbed my sides and my back, then washed me off with warm water. Each of the girls went next and we got more comfortable with the idea as time passed. We helped one another wash our hair, following the examples of the women to our left, and then we just sat in the steam and relaxed for a while. We did get some stares, I assume because of our light complexion (and our constant laughing and joking). We left about an hour and a half later. We went back into the changing room and redressed, then walked back to the hotel. Our hair was wet, but we were still slightly warm.
The thing I found most interesting was that the women were so open with one another, more so than in America. They cover themselves in the male public space, but are extremely liberal and comfortable with their bodies in the private space. They are not ashamed of their bodies, as many women are in the states, and they celebrate them in the hamaam. The woman next to me, for example, was with her teenage daughter. I was awed at how comfortable they were with one another and their own bodies. They did not hide themselves when strangers came in like I was inclined to do. Even more shocking was when I saw these two women get redressed – in full head coverings which only showed their eyes. It broke down the stereotypes that Westerners have about the hijab being oppressive. These women were not oppressed – or at least not in the hamaam. They were carefree and happy.
I wish I was as comfortable with my appearance as these women were. They celebrate their bodies and their curves for exactly what they are and do not hide the imperfections. I hope one day I can be as confident as these magnificent women.