Fez Festival of Sufi Culture - Day One

Much to the relief of organisers and visitors, after two days of rain, the first day of the Fez Festival of Sufi Culture dawned to fine weather

Faouzi Skali

The official opening of the festival took place at la Salle de la Prefecture de Fès Médina at 4pm. and was well attended.

"Only Morocco can hold this kind of event because it has created a social and cultural model, carried by the sovereign and expressed by civil society. The role of Islam in the renewal, the dynamic and creative of values, is conveyed by this living culture that is Sufism" - Faouzi Skali, Festival President.

Carole Latifa

After an introduction by Faouzi Skali, Carole Latifa and Leila Anvar gave something of a sneak preview of what the evening concert would contain. To the delight of the audience they performed a beautifully read poem.

Tribute was also given to Festival President, Faouzi Skali, for his enduring determination to present the festival, a task which has not always been easy. It was warmly appreciated by all those present.

Leila Anvar

The evening concert at Bab Al Makina was Ode aux femmes mystiques (ode for mystical women) and showcased the talents of Carole Latifa Ameer, Leila Anvar, Françoise Atlan, Bahaa Ronda and the ensemble of Rhoum El Bakkali Hadra Chefchaounia with Driss Berrada

Unexpectedly, rain arrived shortly before the concert was scheduled to begin and then, obligingly, stopped. The concert started with a few moments of confusion when the presenter, trying to hold a microphone, papers and a pair of glasses, mixed up and fumbled her French and Arabic notes several times before concluding the introduction with an apology. There was no introduction in English.

A microphone stand would have been helpful

Then it was the turn of technical problems as microphones ceased working. However, this was quickly sorted and the concert proper began with violinist Driss Berrada and two other musicians accompanying Bahaa Ronda and Françoise Atlan. The soloists were in fine form and were warmly welcomed by the large audience.

Françoise Atlan is a French singer, born in a Sephardic Jewish family in Narbonne (France) 27 July 1964. Her father was from Béjaïa, Algeria, and her mother a pianist and a lyrical singer. As always, she is a popular performer, familiar to Fez audiences.

Driss Berrada (centre) with Bahaa Ronda and Françoise Atlan 

Bahaa Ronda, born in a big old rabatie family very attached to the Arab-Andalusian tradition. She is part of the rabati orchestra Chabab al-Andalouss (the Andalusian youth) and performs in the largest Moroccan and international artistic events such as the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music and the Oujda Festival of gharnati music. This concert was one of several times she has accompanied the Sephardic singer Françoise Atlan.

As the two women sang, the members of La Hadra Chefchaounia made their way on stage. This group has gone from strength to strength over the years and in tonights concert were in full voice, confident and strong. Their repertoire was upbeat and melodic and accessible even to those unfamiliar with Andalusian style of Northern Morocco.

La Hadra Chefchaounia 

La Hadra Chefchaounia is the most well known female Sufi group in Morocco. Their musical director is a formidable force in keeping the Hadra tradition alive. Lala Rhoum El Bakkali is a descendant of Sidi Ali Hajj Bakkali who founded the zawiya (Sufi lodge) Bakkali of Chefchaoun. She is a professor of music and teaches piano and Arab-Andalusian music, in addition to acting as the leader and musical director for La Hadra Chefchaounia.

The Hadra Chefchaounia have a distinctive sound that harnesses the melodies and rhythms from the Northern Moroccan Andalusian tradition of Chefchaouen. Using hand drums (gwal) and larger frame drums, they set up some interesting rhythms - at times complex and at others as simple as a heartbeat. It was an effortless performance that, with voices perfectly blended, delivered beautiful ethereal melodies in the Andalusian melodic mode.

Next it was the turn for Carole Latifa Ameer and Leila Anvar to come on stage.

Leila Anvar 

Leili Anvar was born in 1967 in Tehran with an Iranian father and French mother. Apart from music Leila is also is a journalist, translator and lecturer in Persian language and literature. In addition to a large number of academic articles, she is an expert on the work of the poet Djalâl ad-Din Rûmî.

Carole Latifa Ameer 

Carole Latifa Ameer is a musician, art historian and biographer of Kudsi Ergüner, a master of traditional Mevlevi and one of the most famous ney players in Turkey. Carole Latifa Ameer is co-founder of the Dervish Project artist collective with the classical composer Théophile de Wallensbourg. After studying art history and Indian languages ​​and civilisations, she discovered and studied Sufism in India, in the Sufi path Chishtiyya. This former cultural journalist is now dedicated to the sacred arts, their preservation and contemporary creation.

The two women combined in the reading of poetry, and although in French, it was so sweetly performed - as one audience member whispered - "like a message from the heart". With a three-quarter moon sailing up the sky behind the ramparts, it was a magical few minutes.

The concert was a perfect opening for the Fes Festival of Sufi Culture and succeeded because it did not attempt anything too ambitious, complex or profound. It was a simple and near perfect evening.

Review and photos: Sandy McCutcheon

Tomorrow at the festival
10am -    Medersa Bouananiya - Round table: Sufism - a a paradigm of civilisation.
4.30pm - Medersa Bouananiya - Round table; Soufisim and the feminine.
8.30pm - Jnan Sbil Gardens - Tariqa Boutchichiya.
Tomorrow's weather
26 degrees Celsius and sunny.

Buy a ticket online " Ticket Sales"

The View From Fez is an official Festival Media Partner

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Morocco's law criminalising violence against women

Morocco's law criminalising violence against women has come into force. The law includes a ban on forced marriage, sexual harassment in public places, and tougher penalties for certain forms of violence

The law has been criticised by Human Rights Watch for not explicitly criminalising marital rape and lacking a precise definition of domestic violence.

A government survey found that 63% of women between the ages of 18-65 had been victims of violence.

Samira Raiss, one of the main Moroccan campaigners for a law criminalising violence against women, said: "We will not stop here. This law is an asset but it has shortcomings that we have to work on."

The law - known as the Hakkaoui law after Women's Minister Bassima Hakkaoui, who drafted it five years ago - has been criticised for requiring victims to file for criminal prosecution to obtain protection.

"We lack the appropriate tools to implement this law," Ms Raiss said. "In case of marital violence it is difficult to provide proof and we don't even have shelters for victims."

Morocco's new law on violence against women is a long time coming.

Its provisions include penalties ranging one to six months prison sentence to up to a $500 fine for cases of sexual harassment against women in the street and public spaces.

Human Rights Watch said the law has some positive aspects, "such as a definition of violence against women to mean 'any act based on gender discrimination that entails physical, psychological, sexual, or economic harm to a woman'."

But it contains "major gaps and flaws that leave women at risk of domestic violence, including a lack of provisions to finance the reforms," HRW says.

Bouthaina Karouri, a member of the parliamentary committee that drafted the law, says the law can be changed in the future to remedy any oversights.

"No law is perfect" Ms Karouri said.

"Its effectiveness will depend on the approach adopted by the police and the judicial body. As it goes into effect, it is normal to discover some gaps but they can be amended in the future."

Many went on social media, sharing the hashtag #JusticePourKhadija to describe their disgust and horror and calling on the authorities to take action.

In 2014, Morocco's parliament amended an article of the penal code that allowed rapists of underage girls to avoid prosecution by marrying their victims.


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Hadra Festival of Feminine and Trance Music

On the afternoon of August 9th, a colourful and boisterous procession cut through the centre of Essaouira’s medina, marking the beginning of the Hadra Festival of Feminine and Trance Music.
Lauren Crabbe was there for The View From Fez.

Unsuspecting locals and tourists were treated to a wide display of musical styles – from Senegalese drummers to Egyptian whirling dervishes, and all-women’s Sufi groups from the mountains of Tafraoute to Essaouira’s shores

The festival, now in its sixth year, ran for three nights across August 9th-11th in Moulay el Hassan square. Every evening saw three performances that represented elements of Sufism’s three popular brotherhoods: Issawa, Gnaoua, and Hamadcha; called popular because they have long been associated with the common people, with inspiration for material being drawn from daily life as opposed to performing refined classical poetry characteristic of Suni Sufism. The fusion of these three styles comes from their ritual known as hadra (meaning “presence” in Arabic – chanting, recitals, and other rhythmic invocations of God) for which the festival is named.

The president of the event, Madame Latifa Boumazzourh, formed the festival in collaboration with Mohamed Abarda, her artistic director, as a means of helping the public – particularly women and younger generations – understand themselves as part of a rich heritage that needs to be cared for.

“All Moroccans have memories and fascination with moussems [popular festivals] of the past. Children grew up with them – though the content changes from place to place – and they’re very special because of their spectacle. Sometimes you keep in mind just the smell of incense, or colour of the costumes, or particular songs,” says Abarda, translating for Latifa. “People are starting to look into their heritage and memories and discover what was popular in the past. Women start to be more liberated and open, and are searching for their real identities.”

Madame Latifa in the dark green djellaba

Madame Latifa discovered hadra music when she was five. She would attend moussems with her great-grandmother in Essaouira’s Issawa sanctuary; gatherings of musicians from different brotherhoods who would perform from sunset to sunrise over three days, complete with vibrant costumes, incense, and traditional zikhr (chanting). When her great-grandmother died, Latifa continued to go with her grandmother; thus, she has spent almost sixty years immersed in these rituals. Her brother is the moqadem (keeper) of the Hamadcha sanctuary in Essaouira.

Fascinated with the traditions, but aware they were dying along with the old followers and masters, Madame Latifa formed the Haddarates Souiriyattes Association in 2004 – a collection of elderly women who are “like a library” of old songs and poems – and her own all-female band of the same name, before co-founding the Hadra Festival in 2013.

Her aim is to preserve and spread the hadra through Morocco and abroad, as well as shatter stereotypes about Muslim women; prove they can be respectful to their faith and still express themselves creatively without prejudice. They’ve received positive feedback from astonished audiences in France, Italy, Denmark, and India, who had never witnessed devout women shadowing the trance state onstage, ripping off their veils and whipping their hair around, dancing without restraint.

Aicha Elhail an early member of the women's group playing the tea tray!

The Haddarates primarily practise zikhr in their performances (as opposed to samaa, meaning audition – music and dancing). Historically, it was not possible for women to perform outside their houses, so they gathered in private to practise their own kind of zikhr, different to the men’s. They would play glasses on a tea tray as a percussion instrument following a procession, as a way to open the space with kindness, joy, and intimacy – to create an atmosphere that’s like family. Only then would they perform the repertoire of the three popular brotherhoods, imploring spirits to pass through the music and into guests to heal them.

Women, while previously banned from performing with men, have always been integral to the process. In Gnaoua tradition, a lila (night ceremony) cannot take place without a female clairvoyant, who opens the space by dancing while the master plays the guembri (a three-stringed lute instrument), as a kind of dialogue for others to enter trance. Guests, seemingly healed by their experiences, would often become followers and members of the brotherhoods. Popular Sufism has spread widely within Morocco, and abroad in regions like Asia and North America.

Having now emerged into the public sphere, the Haddarates’ repertoire has adapted over time and through travel, drawing inspiration from Andalusia to the Orient, rural villages and cities, sometimes invoking the spirits of local saints to heal people or blessings of God. Sometimes they sing about love and joy, and women’s societal struggles. They perform at intimate ceremonies – birthdays, weddings, funerals, and circumcisions – and onstage for larger audiences, dazzling and healing in the same manner as their male counterparts. However, they rarely collect followers.

The popular Hamadcha Brotherhood

“Young women are not interested in joining because they think there’s no future in it, or they can’t make money from it,” says Abarda. “It always comes down to money.

“It’s not really easy; even Gnaoua masters who have toured all over the world, to famous places, find they can’t make a living and are still poor. Can you imagine? The Haddarates make a small amount of money, but not much; they’re sometimes paid in gifts at small ceremonies…but it’s not enough.”

Even with the Haddarates’ international acclaim, Latifa and Abarda are struggling to find support within Morocco. Aside from compiling the elders’ knowledge into a book, their goal is to studio record an album, create videos and documentaries about feminine hadra throughout Morocco, and find interested professionals who can apply a scientific understanding to the practice or provide financial support. The band currently receives no government or external funding; the HS Association receives a small sum for the festival.

“We’ve been meeting with a lot of anthropologists here, but no one is interested in this; they say there’s no worth. Better to focus on bigger or known brotherhoods than the Haddarates, because they’re not an order,” says Abarda. “Sometimes we are frustrated; but what can you do?”

Witnessing the large group of women – the Haddarates Souiriyattes joined by Latifa’s daughter Khansa’s own association of young female singers – beat their drums and tea tray and chant with primal resolve, enrapturing their audience to sing and clap and ululate and dance, it’s difficult to understand why no one would take interest in these proud performers. It’s impossible to look up at the stage and not see reflections of your own mother, grandmother, and sisters; and their ambition to challenge stereotypes and express themselves creatively is universally relatable.

“If there is a message, it is one of tolerance and peace and coexistence and good things about women in general. They have the right to show themselves like they do, because there is nothing wrong with it,” says Abarda.

The Hadra Festival, taking place in August every year, is an ecstatic blend of cultures, ages, and styles, epitomising all that’s musically fascinating about Morocco; a must-see for every local and traveller visiting Essaouira. For more information, follow the Hadra Festival on Facebook (Festival Hadra Feminine et Musiques de Transe) and through their website.

Story and photos Lauren Crabbe

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The Lone Woman Playing a Man’s Game

Brietta Hague reports on an ancient and little known Moroccan sport - Mata - and the lone woman who has chosen to compete

Photo credit: Angels Melange

A hundred horsemen are preparing for battle. Six tribes from Northern Morocco have gathered in the village of Zniyed for a game that dates back 800 years.

Mata is a display of manhood as much as it is a game. Tribesmen, riding bareback, fight for possession of a female idol, using force if they have to. In past years, some have even used knives.

Traditionally, the rider who crosses the finish line with the idol won the hand of the most beautiful woman in his tribe.

But today the men no longer take a woman as a prize, they compete against one - Zohra Sidki - the only woman to have taken the field for Mata.

Zohra Sidki

Before the race, riders head to pay their respects at the mountain-top tomb of Moulay Abdeslam, the saint who first started Mata.

The Sufi saint is said to have brought the game home from central Asia in the 13th century.

During his travels, he witnessed “buzkashi” — an Afghan sport still popular today where riders vie to put a goat or calf corpse into a goal.

Buzkashi itself was brought across the central steppe to Persia by Mongol hordes.

The sport took hold in north Africa and mixed with local beliefs, becoming something uniquely Moroccan.

When the saint’s direct descendants, the Baraka family, revived the game, they faced a common cultural conundrum: how to honour a historic tradition steeped in patriarchal attitudes that many now find unacceptable.

See Brietta Hague's full report here: Mata Festival 

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Bouchra Baibanou Conquers Mount Everest

Moroccan mountaineer, Bouchra Baibanou, has made it to the top Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain

Morocco World News reports that the news came via her Facebook page.

“I dedicate this achievement to the King Mohammed VI, my partners and my sponsors,” she said. “I have realised my dream thanks to your support and encouragement.”

The Moroccan mountaineer started her mission to conquer Everest in April with an aim to realising her bigger dream of climbing the highest mountains on each of the world’s continents - "the Seven Summits".

On her way to doing so, Baibanou climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Elbrus, Aconcagua, Mt. Blanc, Mt. Kosciuszko, and Mt. McKinley.

The 46-year-old says, “People in Morocco accept women doing adventure sports. It’s not like before. Women can do everything now. I feel lucky to be a Moroccan woman.”

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Izlan ~ Songs of Moroccan Women ~ Review

From the mountains to the plains, from the desert to the sea, woman appeared as a benevolent goddess as she was made of the elements, she was the elements and all that embellished them in the eyes of men. But it was in spring that as the mountain streams came tumbling down, edged with brown foam and bordered by green tamarisk, a muffled drum of pebbles sounded and she flourished and became as ethereal as an antelope. She became conjoined with the rebirth of Nature.～ Mohammad Khair-Eddine (Moroccan writer fromTafraoute)

The formidable Chérifa 
(click on images to enlarge)

Izlan is an Amazigh (Berber) word meaning the art of verse. What the word does not convey is the energy and at times, sheer power of the performers. Tonight was a varied mix, which Festival Artistic Director Alain Weber described to The View from Fez as being "a little difficult to bring together". It was not clear if he was talking about the artists or the overall concept.

Certainly the performers covered a wide range of ages, backgrounds and geographic locations. Among them the formidable Chérifa, Raïssa Fatima Tabaamrant, Fatima Zohra Qortobi,  and a’yu singers – the sung ‘cry’ of Taounate in the Rif, the Roudaniat dancers of Taroudant in the Anti-Atlas, and Bab al Sahara, the guedra dance group from Guelmim.

Bab al Makina was packed

The Bab al Makina venue was packed for the performance which started with a narrator in French introducing the singers. As the audience was overwhelmingly Moroccan the use of French was understood by a majority of them. The anglophone contingent took it in good grace as an American couple told The View From Fez, "We don't understand a word of French, but the music spoke for itself".

The unnamed narrator was also a fine singer 

Raïssa Fatima Tabaamrant (real name is Fatima Shahu) is a great example of the strength of the Amazigh women. Back in 2012, as an Amazigh parliamentary deputy, she posed the first question in Tamazight in the history of the Moroccan parliament. Gutsy, yes, and she can sing. The audience loved her.

Raïssa Fatima Tabaamrant

There was obviously a "pecking order" as some singers were limited to a single song, while others sang two or three.  Some were backed by the small and highly competent orchestra, others by the group of Moroccans playing traditional instruments such as guembri and drums.

Along with the younger emerging artists, there were a couple of surprises. Two older singers (pictured below) were assisted onto the stage, and while the visitors in the audience had no idea who they were, the local Moroccans told us "everybody knows them" - however, when prompted to name them, simply returned to clapping and singing along. Raymonde el Bidaouia (Raymonde the Casablancan) and Haim Batbol were a surprise inclusion, but warmly welcomed by the audience.

Raymonde el Bidaouia - 75 and going strong

Haim Batbol - 82 years old and unstoppable 

The elderly man, Haim Batbol, at 82 appeared a little frail - until he got the microphone in his hand. He was obviously a Fassi favourite (he lives in the Mellah), as he knew exactly which hits to pull from the past and he never missed a beat as the crowd sang along.

Haim Botbol is one of the legends of popular Moroccan and Jewish-Moroccan music.began his career by creating his first group in Fes, in 1952, at the age of 16. Over the years he has become part of the history of popular Moroccan music, while mentoring hundreds of young musicians and singers. Star of Moroccan radio and television, Haim Botbol also performed for Moroccan families, at weddings, communions, and baptisms.

However, it was an odd interlude at a concert dedicated to Moroccan women.

For up and coming stars sit was a chance to show their talent

But the person most of the crowd had come to see was the woman from Khenifra - Chérifa Kersit. Also known as the "poetess of the Middle Atlas",  Chérifa sings in the emotional tamawayt style. She was born in the Middle Atlas Mountains and did not attend school. Her reputation singing at local weddings and village gatherings spread and in 1999 her career took on an international dimension when she sang at Peter Brook's famous Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris in a marathon event celebrating the women of Morocco.

Chérifa 

Chérifa was discovered by the great master and singer Rouicha and was part of her singing group for a long time. Chérifa can seem, at first, to be austere or even masculine. However, her career as a professional singer has given her another way of life, a status different from the usual one of traditional Moroccan women.

The evening's performance by Chérifa was limited by the small amount of time allotted to her. To experience her at full-power is exhilarating, but requires a complete concert.

Still, even with the short time on stage, Chérifa's sense of timing and her feel for poetry showed the audience the authentically Tamawayt tradition of the Amazigh songs of the Middle Atlas.

The emotional register alternated between rejoicing and suffering and spiritual reflection. From a restrained opening instrumental taqsime at the start of her performance, Chérifa's voice shattered the silence like a lightning bolt and, amid a frenzy of drumming, became the echo of the geography of the mountains of the Middle Atlas.

It was a good night at the Fes Festival, but left many wanting more.

I open my mouth to implore God,
not man who is not my creator,
Pillow, you are my witness:
even if I rest my head on you,
sleep never comes to my eyes.'
Tamawayt poem

Review and photographs: Sandy McCutcheon

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Important International Forum: Women's Voices

Women’s Voices in the Mediterranean and Africa: Movements, Feminisms, and Resistance to Extremism

Under His Majesty the king Royal Patronage, ISIS Centre for Women and Development and Konrad Adenauer Foundation organise the 8th edition of the Mediterranean Women Forum on the theme “Women’s Voices in the Mediterranean and Africa: Movements, Feminisms, and Resistance to Extremisms” on May 5, 6, and 7-10, 2017 at les Mérinides Hotel, Fez, Morocco. This event is organised in partnership with Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University and Penn State University (USA). The main aim of the conference is to fight radicalisation and extremism, build-up peace initiatives, protect women’s rights, and enhance women’s empowerment.

An increasing number of women’s voices in the Mediterranean and Africa is rising against mounting gender-based violence in the name of radical Islam and the instrumentalisation of religion to exacerbate Islamophobia and attain power. These voices range from academics, to activists, and policy-makers, and suggest new ways of looking at the concepts of Mediterranean and African “women’s rights”, “Islamic feminisms”, Muslim African feminisms, and “resistance, as well as exploring theoretical and methodological tools. Trough feminist discourses, activisms, and movements, the voices are denouncing biases, asking for justice, reclaiming rights in public spaces, and reconciling older and newer generations of feminists in the Mediterranean and Africa.

In retrospective, women in the Mediterranean and Africa have always been sensitive to radicalised discourses as they are often used as scapegoats in such discourses. Although the two regions are seen as distinct spaces, women in them are increasingly facing the same ordeal. The Forum is multi-disciplinary and seeks to develop innovative and insightful ways of unpacking and accounting for these resistances.

Main Topics:

*The contextualisation of extremisms and women’s resistances
*Radicalised ideologies in the Maghrib
*Radicalised ideologies in Africa
*Islam and feminism/Islamic feminisms – Strategies of resistance

The keynote address on Friday May 5 (9.30am), will be Women’s Fight Against Extremisms: From Resistance to Bold Action delivered by Assia BENSALAH ALAOUI, Ambassador at large for His Majesty Mohamed VI, King of Morocco.

DETAILS
Venue: Hôtel Les Mérinides, Fès
Dates: 5,6,7 May, 2017
Contacts:
Dr Fatima Sadiqi, Director of the Forum
sadiqi_fatima@yahoo.fr
Ms Abir Ibourk (KAS), Director of Logistics
Abir.Ibourl@kas.de

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Imilchil Moussem - The Brides Market - 22nd to 24th September

The Souk Aamor Agdoud N’Oulmghenni, or the renowned Imilchil Moussem; the “Fête des Fiancés” or “Marriage Market”, is the most impressive of all the Berber mountain souks

Held at the end of summer, over three days - September, 22, 23rd and 24th - it represents the annual meeting of the great family tribes Aït Haddidou, Aït Morghad, Aït Izdeg and Aït Yahia. A gathering of the Berber people of remote villages of the Middle and High Atlas mountain valleys and nomadic herders of the southern slopes leading to the fringes of the Sahara desert

These days the event is organised in collaboration with the municipality of Bouzemou and the province of Midelt, aims to contribute to the preservation of cultural and symbolic heritage of the region through the promotion of local traditions and mountain tourism.

There are two main competing versions of stories that lay claim for the inception of the festival. They are both pragmatic and probably the real truth lies somewhere in between the romantic fact and fiction.

Berber legend tells that two young people from different feuding tribes fell in love but, in a Moroccan triste akin to Romeo and Juliet, they were forbidden to see each other by their families. The grief of unrequited love led them to their deaths. One ending of legend tells that they cried themselves to death, creating the neighbouring deep alpine lakes of Isli (his) and Tislit (hers), near Imilchil.

The second ending, equally dramatic, is that the lovers drowned themselves in the separate lakes. Accordingly the Imilchil Marriage Festival was founded as an anniversary to those lover’s death, and in a tribal tradition, as an opportunity for unmarried Berbers, particularly women trapped at altitude for most of the year, to survey and mingle with prospective spouses. For some it’s the opportunity to commit to the vow of marriage and commence the tying of the marital knot with their chosen love.

The second and more unromantic version of the story is that the marriage tradition purportedly derives from the French colonial times of the last century, when the foreign officials used to insist that the Berbers assembling for their yearly souk, registered their births, deaths and marriages. Most probably it is that act that instituted the official contract signing and noting of the exchange of vows we know them today. While its not apparent it is said that most marriage matches are arranged in advance and merely formalised at the moussem with the contract signing.

Whatever version of the story you want to believe, the souk and moussem is a delightfully unique and colourful event. Small groups of young Berber women dressed in traditional finery and roughly, woven woollen robes distinctive to each family tribe, some with berber fibules (amulets), eyes rimmed with heavy black kohl, and intricately hennaed hands, amble through the commerce of the souk talking, flirting with or being approached by the potential bachelors trying to strike up meaningful conversation. The wary eyes of elder relatives, looking on, following them protectively at a furtive distance.

On the second day of this year’s moussem, under the white and black appliqué of the official Moroccan tent, 29 young couples apprehensively waited to make their vows at the public ceremony. A large crowd of onlookers sparsely sprinkled with few tourist eyes, Moroccan media and a few film documentary crews looked on from a short distance. For all the sense of frivolity surrounding the evident flirting, courtship and mingling in the souk the young nuptial couples sat in nervous congregation before approaching the officials together and solemnly signing their betrothal contract with the stamp of their inked thumbs. Then each couple, striding from the official’s tents, amidst the celebratory rhythmic tamborines, singing and shrill tongue warbles, successively broke through the parted circle of the crowd. Stepping over the threshold of tradition and through the open door of their married lives ahead of them.

Text and photographs: John Horniblow

The Islamic State’s Problem With Women - Fatima Sadiqi

Commentary on the Islamic State is most often by men. For a change, here is an interesting piece by well-known Moroccan academic, Fatima Sadiqi. Fatima is Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies at the University of Fez, Morocco, and a recipient of a Woodrow Wilson Center Fellowship. Her writing of the Islamic State's problem with women was published by Project Syndicate - and is republished with permission from the author

It is telling that women feature heavily in the Islamic State’s rise and fall. While ISIS’s craven massacre of Yazidi women in Iraq and Syria helped put it on the map, its gradual downfall is coming partly at the hands of Kurdish women fighting against it on the front lines.

It is easy to see a simple revenge story in this progression, but a deeper reading points to the fundamental role of women in ISIS’s ideology, and their future role in its denouement.

When ISIS captured territory in 2014 to establish its self-proclaimed caliphate, it wanted to stage a spectacle that the world would be unable to ignore. So it resorted to the mass abduction, murder, rape, and enslavement of women, especially among the minority Yazidis. ISIS’s brutality against its female captives was intended to humiliate the enemy and send a warning to anyone who did not adhere to its extremist, radical interpretation of Islam.

Yazidi women and children flee the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, west of Mosul

In January and February 2016, Human Rights Watch interviewed 15 Yazidi women and girls and 21 Sunni Muslim Arab women who managed to escape from ISIS. Most of them spent more than a year in captivity, and say they were forced to convert to Islam (if they weren’t Muslims), enslaved, systematically raped – sometimes by multiple jihadist militants – and bought and sold.

These women’s tragic stories suggest that the ISIS pseudo-state was built on the total subjugation of women, and the group has indeed frequently crafted brutal, misogynistic propaganda to express and promote its ideology.

ISIS has institutionalised physical and psychological violence against women through fatwas (religious decrees) issued by senior ideologues. Worse still, this practice has been exported to other extremist groups, such as Boko Haram in West Africa, which pledged allegiance to ISIS in early 2015.

The group’s ideology requires the “erasure” of women’s civil rights and their full subordination to the family structure and the men who control it. The sanctioned course of a woman’s life is to remain at home and raise young jihadists to fight for the state. Women who transgress the ideal role of wife and mother by seeking autonomy or self-expression outside the family are severely punished.

This is all based on a perverse interpretation of Islamic law, which, not surprisingly, still operates only in the domain of family law. In this context, women are needed to legitimise the fatwas upholding the ruling ideology; but they also make for useful scapegoats when needed.

Against this backdrop, it is especially ironic to see Kurdish women soldiers in the front line of the United States-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Recent military operations have reclaimed territory that was long under ISIS’s control, including areas south of Mosul, the group’s capital in Iraq. The images from these victories, featuring women, are an antidote to ISIS’s poisonous propaganda, and they encourage more women to resist the group’s ideological dictates.

22 year old Asia Ramazan Antar - killed this week in a car bomb attack against Kurdish women

The message seems to be spreading. As ISIS’s grip on territory loosens, so, too, does its control over women. The most memorable image from the liberation of the Syrian city of Manbij was that of women burning their burqas and publicly denouncing ISIS atrocities.

These powerful symbolic gestures will have both short- and long-term effects. In the short term, they are a public assertion of women’s autonomy; after so much propaganda and brutality, many in the region no longer thought such behaviour was possible. In the long term, images of women actually killing and capturing ISIS fighters amount to the first nail in the coffin of the group’s ideology, which is founded on the false premise of feminine inferiority.

Because ISIS put women at the centre of its ideology, women are a significant hidden threat to it. By demonstrating their personal agency against ISIS’s dictates, women freed from its control remind the world that the group has hijacked Islam’s universal values and perverted its teachings.

It is fitting that strong and courageous women should help defeat a group whose founding myth rests on the violent subjugation of women. Women’s role as fighters, perhaps more than anything else, will ensure that the tenets of ISIS – particularly its lethal brand of patriarchy – are rejected outright.

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Moroccan Photo of the Day - Women Sufis

Ancient traditions and a modern smoke machine combine to give a dramatic picture of Kloub Nssa (Heart Of Women) - Women Sufis from Essaouira - who have been working with Paula Jeanine Bennet (see more here). The photograph was taken at the recent Festival International de Hadra Feminine et Musiques de Transe

Photo credit: Mbarek AG  - Click image to enlarge

See more in our series Photo of the Day 

The View from Fez welcomes contributions to our Photo of the Day Series

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Backlash Against France's Burkini Ban

France is experiencing a worldwide backlash against its shameful moves to ban the burkini - the Australian designed bathing costume for Muslim women

Nice, Cannes, and several other French cities have recently enacted bans against the burkini, with supporters arguing that the swimwear is not "respectful of good morals and of secularism," and that it poses risks to hygiene and security. Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said that the burkini represents the "enslavement of women," while former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who announced his 2017 presidential campaign this week, described it as a "provocation" that supports radical Islam.

The argument for the ban rests, ostensibly, on the French principle of laïcité, which aims to keep religion out of the public sphere, and on the basis of gender equality. But critics say the burkini bans only serve to further stigmatise France's Muslim population — the largest in Europe — at a time when tensions are running high following terror attacks in Nice and the northern city of Rouen this summer. The French feminist group Osez le Féminisme! excoriated the bans in a statement released this week, saying they serve only to humiliate Muslim women "on the grounds of sexism and racism".

On Thursday, the council of state, France’s highest administrative court, will examine a request by the French Human Rights League to scrap the burkini bans. Lawyers argue that the short-term decrees are illegal.

A French politician has threatened lawsuits for showing these photos

Meanwhile, a French politician has threatened to file a lawsuit against anyone who shares photos or videos of police enforcing a ban on the burkini. The statement comes after the widespread circulation of photos showing the Muslim woman removing her clothes in front of four male police officers on a beach in Nice. The French spin doctors are hard at work trying to lessen the damage and now the Nice mayor’s office has even attempted to deny that the woman had been forced to remove clothing, telling Agence France-Presse that the woman was showing police the swimsuit she was wearing under her tunic over a pair of leggings

Christian Estrosi, president of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and deputy mayor of Nice, said in a statement Wednesday that the photos "provoke defamatory remarks and threats" against police agents. He added that legal complaints have already been filed "to prosecute those who spread the photographs of our municipal police officers and those uttering threats against them on social networks."

News media around the world have widely condemned the French ban and even non-Muslim women have been buying burkinis to wear in solidarity with the French women.

Burkini to the rescue - an Australian lifesaver

The British newspaper, The Guardian comments: The French republic is built on a strict separation of church and state, intended to foster equality for all private beliefs. In theory, the state is neutral in terms of religion and allows everyone the freedom to practise their faith as long as there is no threat to public order.

Benoît Hamon, a former education minister running to be the Socialists’ presidential candidate in the 2017 election, said a woman being stopped by police for wearing a headscarf on a beach made a mockery of French secularism and warned against “an obsessive oneupmanship against Muslims” by politicians.

The Green party senator Esther Benbassa tweeted: “Women in headscarves stopped by police on the beach. Secularism? No. Harassment. Anti-religious persecution.”

The French group Osez le féminisme said: “We condemn these anti-burkini decrees. Where are women’s rights when we hold one category of women responsible for ‘public disorder’, or even for terrorism? What is the link between a woman in a headscarf on a beach and mass murders carried out by jihadis?”

The garment’s Australian creator Aheda Zanetti,  reports that her sales have gone through the roof since Nice joined Cannes and a number of other water-side locations in not allowing women to wear the conservative design.

“Online sales in the last week have probably had a 200 per cent jump, maybe even 300 per cent,” she explains.

Aheda Zanetti - "I created the burqini for freedom, not to take it away"

While Ms Zanetti’s business has been buoyed by the recent controversy, she says that as a woman and a mother, she’s deeply hurt by the ban.

"I don’t understand why people think they have the right to [tell women what they can and can't wear]", Ms Zanetti says. She's also disappointed that her design has been politicised and associated with a certain religion.

“You can’t judge a wearer, she could be anyone and she is anyone," she states, “This has always been a swimsuit for everyone, it was designed to integrate among the West. It does not symbolise a Muslim woman, it should not symbolise a Muslim woman because the veil was taken away."

"The veil is usually a symbol of a typical Muslim woman and we took that away and replaced it with a hood to integrate within our Western friends and neighbours. No one needs to judge us on what faith we are if we choose to be modest while enjoying our leisure time."

At the same time France is being put to further shame by the actions of several other more tolerant societies. In Canada, the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, called for  "the respect of individual rights and choices" and ruled out a burkini ban.  Also the Royal Canadian Mounted Police known simply as "the Mounties", have adopted a new uniform policy to allow female Muslim officers to wear the hijab.

Scott Bardsley, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, confirmed that RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson recently approved an addition to the uniform policy to allow women officers to wear the head scarf "if they so choose."

"The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a progressive and inclusive police service that values and respects persons of all cultural and religious backgrounds," Bardsley said.

Bardsley said the RCMP will be the third Canadian police force to adopt the hijab policy, behind Toronto and Edmonton police services. Police services across the U.K., Sweden and Norway, and some in U.S. states, have also adopted similar policies.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims applauded the policy change, calling it a "welcome one and a natural evolution for Canadian policing." The advocacy group said three types of headscarves were tested to select one that would not encumber officers and could be easily removed when required.

"While in 1990 there was initial reluctance to allow Sikh RCMP officers to wear the turban as part of their uniforms, Canadians have since embraced the change and we expect that this will be the same with the decision to allow the hijab, said the council's communications director Amira Elghawaby in a release.

"The Canadian Muslim population is growing and this decision will help reflect the richness and diversity of our country as well as open up career options for minorities."

The military has longstanding policies "to protect and promote the religious or spiritual rights and freedoms of [Canadian Armed Forces] members," including accommodating religious and spiritual requirements "if militarily practicable."

 Lt.-Cmdr. Wafa Dabbagh became the first CAF member to wear the hijab in 1996

Lt. Commander Wafa Dabbagh became the first female member of the Canadian Armed Forces to wear the hijab in 1996.

According to the military's dress instructions manual dated 2001, members can wear the hijab with certain conditions.

"For spiritual and religious reasons, members are authorised to wear the hijab, provided that any danger should be avoided when they carry some types of operational gear parts such as gas mask, oxygen mask, combat/vehicle/flying/ construction helmets, diver's mask, etc.," the policy reads.

"In case of real danger, these members shall modify their hairstyling or hijab, or both, in a way that will allow them to wear the requested gear."

British police have allowed hijab for the last ten years

And on the other side of the Atlantic, Police Scotland have approved the hijab as official uniform to boost number of Muslim women joining force.

In a statement, chief constable Phil Gormley said: “I am delighted to make this announcement and welcome the support from both the Muslim community, and the wider community, as well as police officers and staff.

“Like many other employers, especially in the public sector, we are working towards ensuring our service is representative of the communities we serve. I hope that this addition to our uniform options will contribute to making our staff mix more diverse and adds to the life skills, experiences and personal qualities that our officers and staff bring to policing the communities of Scotland.”

The announcement was welcomed by the Scottish Police Muslim Association (SPMA), a group that aims to build links between Muslim communities in Scotland and the police.

Fahad Bashir, chair of the SPMA said: “This is a positive step in the right direction, and I am delighted that Police Scotland is taking productive steps in order to ensure that our organisation is seen to be inclusive and represents the diverse communities that we serve across Scotland.

“No doubt this will encourage more women from Muslim and minority ethnic backgrounds to join Police Scotland.”

Back in France Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has warned against stigmatising Muslims. Speaking after a meeting with the head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), Cazeneuve said: "The implementation of secularism, and the option of adopting such decrees must not lead to stigmatisation or the creation of hostility between French people."

In the end, France’s burkini ban exposes the hypocrisy of its secularist state and the ban on the burkini will do nothing but further increase tensions and fuel extremism. It brings nothing but shame to the country of France.

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