Thank yo so much from the response, it always helps to hear the ideas of others!

well, i can only speak from my own experiences. I travelled semi-solo through the eastern and southern parts of the country, and Marakech being the only exception, I felt like I attracted a lot of attention. I wore short sleeved t-shirts and always wore long jeans, couldn't imagine wearing shorts or a skirt, but maybe the shirts were a little on the small side.

But it's hard to say what garnered the attention. It could've been that I'm asian and that was a novelty. I saw a few Moroccan women in western clothing in the medinas and not turning many heads.

I do remember this one time in Fez I walked around the souks in my usual fire engine red lipstick and had about half the city come up to me and point to my lips and giggle. It wasn't so much that the attention was oppressive (felt more like curiousity), but it was more than i felt comfortable with so I went with looser, bigger clothes and without the lipstick for the rest of my trip and the attention seemed to fade.

Marakech was a complete shock by the time I got there, cuz there were loads more European travellers and I saw a lot of skirts and heels and nobody seemed to bat an eye.

I think they're probably wanting you to play it safe, but a couple short sleeves really aren't going to set off a riot anywhere that I went to.