Women of Fes

Based on almost two years of fieldwork conducted in the city of Fez, Rachel Newcomb's Women of Fes provides valuable insights into the everyday lives of Moroccan women. Helen Ranger has been reading the book.

Rachel Newcomb is a young American anthropologist, currently an assistant professor at Rollins College in Florida, USA. She has spent time studying Sufism in Egypt, Turkey, Senegal and Moroccan. Married to a Fassi, Newcomb lived in the Ville Nouvelle of Fez for almost two years, where she had plenty of access to Moroccan women.


'At this moment in history', she writes, 'when images of veiled and "oppressed" Muslim women crowd the television and are used in support of policy initiatives ranging from economic development to war, public understanding, particularly in the United States, of what it means to be a Muslim woman is limited at best. The "Muslim woman" remains an essentialized entity, a hooded figure imagined to be subjected to a vindictive, patriarchal religion, tribal mores, and certain abuse from her husband. Sensationalized stories of honor killings, female circumcision, and women singled out for improper dress by the Taliban and brutally attacked, capture the public imagination and lead to the widespread impression that the Muslim world is a singular place where the lot of all women is appalling.'

Tellingly, Newcomb says, 'Particularly at this time, nuanced protrayals of women in Muslim countries are needed more than ever, if for no other reason than to highlight the complexities of their lives and to underscore the fact that they are not waiting to be "saved" by the West.'

The book contains a number of fascinating case histories of largely middle-class Fassi women living in the Ville Nouvelle. They include that of Hurriya, a matriarch who holds down a responsible administrative job as well as providing for her adult children and grandchildren; Naima, a disabled lawyer who also volunteers at a women's NGO; Layla, a singer who longs to be recognised for her talent as well as her 'modern' outlook on life, as well as insights into Newcomb's own adopted family.

Why Fez, and why women from the Ville Nouvelle? Newcomb chose Fez for her study as 'the provincial character of a city like Fes, with a population of ove a million residents, makes it an interesting area for inquiry' rather than the capital, Rabat, or a more cosmopolitan city such as Casablanca. And the Ville Nouvelle 'offers a unique opportunity to observe ... processes in urban areas of the Muslim world that are not considered central to political and economic operations of power'.

Newcomb maintains that 'the identity of Moroccan women is inextricably connected to the way Moroccans imagine their nation. How urban, middle-class Fassis, particularly women, construct their identities and gender space in response to ideologies in largely the subject of this book'.

Also central is the discussion that took place concerning reforms to the mudawana (the personal status code that particularly affects women with regard to their marital condition, divorce, custody of children and inheritance) that were mooted in the early 2000s and instigated in 2004. One criticism is that Newcomb's research was carried out between 2001 and 2002, which means that the results of changes to the mudawana are not recorded. But with that in mind, the study makes fascinating reading.

Women of Fes by Rachel Newcomb is published by University of Pensylvania Press. Read more about the author at www.rachelnewcomb.net.

Click here for the latest CNN news on women's rights in Morocco - this interview features Fatima Sadiqi.