lalla jmila polyvocia

7/27/2019 Lalla Jmila Polyvocia

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while Ittos arrest is an incredibly traumatic experience: she is married off to herstep brother in a fake ceremony, before being raped, and is subsequentlyabandoned by her fianc. At the same time, both women are resistants in their ownway, and display strength and courage. Throughout the play, we are introduced tothe stories of other women: a long history of feminine resistance is uncovered. Lalla

Yennou for example, Ittos adopted mother, is a fqiha , a self-educated woman whoorganizes meetings in the hammam and writes songs criticizing the colonial powers.She teaches local women how to read and write, empowering them througheducation: she thus resists both on a political and a social level, fighting againstboth colonialism and patriarchy

The play is divided in lightings, rather than acts, with each part focusing on acharacter or on locus. The setting of the play, Tangiers, plays such an importantpart in the play that it almost becomes a character. Ben Bouchta, himself a nativeof Tangiers, often features the city in his plays: Amine describes his work as place-specific material, and a theatrical articulation of the space of Tangier as apracticed place.( Amine, 2007: 167). In this play, the colonial history of the cityunder Spanish rule is mentioned several times, and the Mediterranean Sea, which

Tangier overlooks, becomes a soothing element, used by Lalla Jmila in her spiritualrituals. Her cave on the seaside, as well as the Girls Rock, a mythical site, bothhave strong evocations: they represent a liminal, feminine space, devoted tonatural energies, where Moroccan women can momentarily subvert deeply rootedpatriarchal violence. (Amine, 2007: 168). The locus of the performance, played outmainly in this cave where Itto comes to look for her sister, is thus a crucial elementof the story. The following lightings take us back and forth in time, describing Lalla

Jmilas difficult childhood, Ittos arrest and rape, the resistance organized by Lalla

YennouIt focuses on individual stories of Moroccan women trying to define a placefor themselves in a patriarchal, men-centred environments. It thus uncovers awomens history, ignored by history books and by society; in Lalla Jmila on theopposite, those women are given a voice, a space to discuss their plight. Although itis not often acknowledged, resistant women like Lalla Yennou are a constant fixturein Moroccan history: there are countless accounts of women taking part in battles orhaving important roles in the political, social and spiritual life in various times in thepast. From the beginning of colonization, women actively fought the settlers: A.Baker writes that women participated in active, even armed, resistance againstthe colonizers from the very beginning of the protectorate, especially Berber womenin the Rif mountains, the Middle Atlas, and the Anti-Atlas and Sahara in the south(Baker, 1998: 18). She further says: What is striking in this brief summary of Moroccan womens roles in myth and history is the extent to which it provides directprecedents for womens activities in the nationalist movements and armedresistance (1998: 19). The women described in the play are thus far from beingexceptions: they represent a long trend of politically active women, who invested allparts of society.


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Lalla Jmila is very successful in juxtaposing several generations of women,resisting both colonialism and patriarchy. Through the stories shared by the twosisters, we discover a history of oppression, imposed both by the patriarchal system

and the Spanish and French colonizers. Women thus suffer a double discrimination:they become colonized subjects, and although they have active roles in theresistance and are often tortured and raped for their involvement, they dont gain aheroic resistant status. Their actions are dismissed as simple help, although theyrisk their lives for their cause. Furthermore, when they come out of jail, they areoften rejected by society: it is not acceptable for a woman to become a resistant.

This injustice is highlighted in the play, when Ittos fianc ElMehdi abandons her,under pressure from his mother: A prison, my son, is for men, she says, and laterIf a woman enters a prison, she remains in it (Ben Bouchta, 2007:66). Thisdialogue between this mother and her son is very revealing because although sheseems to be proud of her sons involvement in resistance, she cannot accept adaughter-in-law such as Itto: she is thus, as a woman, reproducing genderdiscrimination upon other women. She thus makes it clear that although womenalso suffered from political oppression, both under colonialism and later under thelead years, it is not acceptable for them to speak out and participate in any kind of resistance: a womans place is in her house. Amine writes that the performanceunlocks histories of Moroccan sexual politics within an extreme situation markedby colonial hegemony on the one hand, and the deeply rooted local patriarchalmindset on the other hand (Amine, 2007: 168). Women are thus stuck in animpossible situation: from neither side are they able to find relief and confort.

The play also demonstrates the cruelty with which women daring to challengemens authority were punished: in several part, the women describe the abuse theyhave suffered at the hands of their fathers, brothers or the police. A telling event iswhen Lalla Jmila and her mother are obliged by her step father BaHaddo to threadthorns bare feet, as a punishment for going to the protests organized by Lalla

Yennou. Demonstrating the movements in a sort of dance, she sings Thorns havegrown in the heart, so we, threshed all of it, feet are bleeding, and the well hasdried (Bouchta, 2007: 38). The forced marriage scene, in which BaHaddo marriesoff young Lalla Jmila to an old man who already has three wives, leads to aninteresting subversion of masculine symbols: the young woman dresses up as aman to escape her marriage unrecognized, and realizing that life is much easier

under her disguise, she decides to live as a man, taking up work in a new city. Afterthis comic episode, in which Lalla Jmila is forced to abandon her new life becauseher employers daughter is falling in love with her, the story of younger Itto appearsvery tragic, on several levels. The rape of Itto, also recreated on stage and leadingher to faint after a hysterical fit, is probably the climax of the play, a very powerfulscene through which Itto tries to exorcise her demons. Encouraged by Lalla Jmila,she recalls the events, and the travesty of wedding that took place, marrying her to


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her half brother Ould Lglassa. The rape is highly symbolic: what worse could bedone to a woman, especially in a society in which a womans chastity is so sacred?Amine writes that it is the ultimate evil that can be inflicted upon the female body,particularly in a strict Muslim society such as Morocco where the loss of virginity or,even worse, being spurned as a wife, is considered great shame and

disgrace.(Amine, 2007: 171). It could be read as a metaphor for the constanthumiliation of women at the hands of men, which is constantly ignored by the state:in fact, in this scene, it is the state that is responsible for the rape, since it is a formof secret police that obliges Ould Lglassa to commit incest and rape his sister.

What is striking in Lalla Jmila is the generational conflict that emerges betweenthe various women mentioned, who belong to different eras. The strategies theyuse to resist are very different, and sometimes conflicting: Lalla Yennouemancipates women through education, encouraging them to take their place inpublic and political life. On the other side, Lalla Jmila attitude is much morepersonal: she doesnt resist the patriarchal system directly, but works around it, byestablishing herself at the periphery of society, and by subverting masculine codes,as she does when she dresses up as a man. There is also here an important gapbetween the two sisters: Itto is younger, educated, and desperately unable toaccept her fate; Lalla Jmila on the other side, is from a very simple, ruralbackground, but the years have made her wiser. While Itto is dedicated to change,Lalla Jmila has accepted her position and has earned a status through her activityas a spiritual healer, gaining the respect of the local women. Several times she triesto advice her younger sister, teaching her that a woman also is winged; she onlyneeds to know how to fly (Ben Bouchta, 2007: 69), but Itto belongs to a generationof women who cannot settle in traditional gender roles anymore, especially after

being given responsibilities as a resistant: as she jumps into the sea at the end of the play, she says I am tired of sleeping; today I want to soar (Ben Bouchta, 2007:82).

Ben Bouchtas account of Ittos story is especially important in the current context,in which the years of human rights abuse under Hassan II are being reviewed andinvestigated. Lalla Jmila is one of the first texts to explore the plight of resistantwomen during the lead years, which is often ignored. When King Mohammed VI tookthe power in 1999 after the death of his father, he set up the Equity andReconciliation Commission, a unique move destined to shed light on the decades of human rights violation under the reign of his father, during which many men andwomen were tortured, exiled, or simply disappeared. Victims of those abuses werethen invited to speak out and were offered compensation, although theperpetuators were never named nor prosecuted. Few women however haveobtained the recognition of their status as former political detainee, although they


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were submitted to the same treatment as men, made worse by rapes and sexualharassment. The testimony of Itto is thus crucial as it gives us a gendered history of the lead years: when men would leave the jails and be hailed by the public as braveheroes of the resistance, the womens courage was never recognized, and theywere rejected by society. Ittos story highlights this injustice, as well as exposes the

psychological implications of her detainment and rape: several times she breaksdown, constantly repeating that her rapist has escaped with the bird and stuntedher (Ben Bouchta, 2007:79). For her, theres no possibility to get closure: becauseof her ordeal, she lost her sanity, her fianc and her place in society; she sees noother escape than death.

Lalla Jmila thus gives a voice to generations of women whose struggle wentunnoticed and dismissed as insignificant. In fact, Barker notes that, post-Independence, the only women who got some real benefits from the newgovernment were the widows of martyrs (Barker, 1998: 34). The women whoactively took part in the fight for freedom had hoped for some kind of recognition,or for womens rights to be made a priority, but their hopes were squashed. In therecent years since Mohamed VI came into power, this injustice seems to berepeated: the Reconciliation Commission has largely omitted the sufferings andtortures to which women were subjected during the lead years. There has been ahuge failure in post-colonial Morocco to ensure justice and democracy to its citizens,and although a first step has been made by the launch of the Commission, the playhighlights its shortcomings and limitations. Ironically, Itto is arrested by a secretagent on Liberty Avenue: if the country has earned its freedom from French andSpanish colonialism, its citizens clearly havent: simply for taking part in studentprotest, Itto is raped and taken to jail. On many levels, as the play cleverly

demonstrates, Independence didnt fulfil its promises: Moroccans, and women inparticular, still lived under an oppressive regime.

Furthermore, the play highlights the plight of lone, unmarried women, cast out forrefusing, or not being able to conform to the norm. The status of a woman withouta man is hardly enviable, although the increase of women joining the workforceand living independently is slowly changing mentalities. Barker writes about themarginal status of women without men(Barker, 1998:10), and their struggle toprovide for themselves and their family. Although the reformed Mudawana tries to

make women more independent, the very high level of unemployment and povertyhas in fact obliged them to rely on mens work more than before. Zvan Elliottaddresses this important problem by stating that no reform to the status of womencan be successful without being accompanied by wider reforms, writing an all-encompassing economic and educational reform has to go hand in hand with socialchanges (Zvan Elliott, 2009: 213). In the play, Lalla Jmila survives on the outskirtsof the city, living in a cave and presumably fed by what her customers bring her aspayment and gifts. Itto, although more educated and for an urban background, is


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also unable to lead a life as a single woman: having lost her fianc and raised byfqiha Lalla Yennou, thus without the protection of a father, she is suddenlyostracized from society and left without any means of survival. Both are livingprecarious lives in a fragile environment, vulnerable to abuse and violence from theauthorities and wider society. The part in which Lalla Jmila describes her life under

a mans disguise is particularly striking, as she describes her happiness at beingable to travel on her own, walk with her head high, and be respected as a humanbeing. Although she travels alone and has no relatives, arriving in a city where sheis completely unknown, she is quickly offered work, a shelter, and a woman tomarry. By contrast Itto, when returning to her city after her ordeal, is immediatelysuspected and rejected. This discrepancy between genders was replicated in theMudawana up to very recently, since it simply affirmed the existing patriarchalmodel : women issues were thus simply ignored, and women had little say in thepolitical and social life of the country.

The first Mudawana was issued shortly after Independence, between 1957 and1959, and as been reviewed a few times since, although only with very minorchanges. Although Islam guarantees equality between men and women, InMoroccan family law, women are put in a position of inferiority, subject to men inthe family (Barker, 1998: 30). However, one of the first moves of King MohammedVI was to call for a review of Womens rights and changes to the Mudawana . Afterlong debates, the new family Code was introduced in 2004, making changes to thelaws concerning marriage, divorce and child custody. Notably, women are now ableto ask for a divorce following an easier procedure, polygamy has been restricted,and children born from Moroccan women and foreign fathers can ask for Moroccannationality. The new Mudawana is still, years after, highly controversial: feministgroups have criticized it for not being applicable in practice: no training has beenprovided for judges, and the majority of women actually ignore their new rights:there are important misconceptions about the changes. The Mudawana wasreceived in the West as a liberalization of Morocco, a great step for womens rights,but the story on the ground is different: women for poorer backgrounds have lessaccess to information and advice, and there are many misconceptions about whatthe new Code. Furthermore, corruption is common within the judicial system,

making it harder for women to obtain justice, and the training for judges concerningthe change has been inadequate: according to Zvan Elliott, some judges still refuseto carry it out(Zwan Elliott, 2009: 221). In the play, Lalla Jmila remembers hermother saying: Listen my daughter, the judge is a man and the convict is awoman(Ben Bouchta, 2007: 39), as if no justice was possible for women in asociety dominated by men. As a whole, the Moroccan population is not satisfied bythe new Code: the New York Times quotes a recent survey which found that 49percent of respondents aid that the new Moudawana gave too many rights to


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women (Erlanger & Mekhennet, 2009), showing that the new code is still far frombeing accepted, several years after its introduction. On the other side, many womenare asking for more radical changes. Ben Bouchta s play also highlights the factthat legal changes are not enough for gender equality to be applied: when Itto isreleased from jail, she is rejected by the local people, prompting Lalla Jmila to say:

They want to bury her before a judge and law. (Ben Bouchta, 2007:67). The newMudawana encounters exactly the same issues: there are huge gaps between thelaws and what is applied in practice: Changing the generally conservativementality of Moroccans is a more daunting task than changing the law itself (ZwanElliott, 2009: 221).

One of the main criticisms against the new Mudawana is actually its inapplicabilityand inability to address real problems. Nadia Yassine, daughter of the influentialleader Abdessalam Yassine of the Islamist party al Adl wal Ihsan, is quoted assaying in an interview: These reforms have been elaborated in response to thedesires of foreigners and the feminist movement, but not to produce any realchanges in womens lives(Yassine, 2004). The debates before and after theintroduction of the Mudawana also revealed a rise of conservatism, from parts of society deeply opposed to the changes. On the other side, feminist movements arealso unsatisfied by the changes: activist Khadijah Rouggany said They areinsufficient, because their application is so problematic. There is no realinfrastructure to enforce them, and no real education among the judges. Its aquestion of mentality (Rouggany, 2006). Attitudes have thus only superficiallyevolved since the time described in Ben Bouchtas play: society, and especiallywomen, are still divided on the direction to take for their future. Although theintroduction of the reformed Mudawana i s an important first step, Morocco is still

very far from achieving full gender equality: profound economic and social reformsare needed in order to give women more independence and self-reliance.

Ben Bouchtas play, commissioned to address issues related to womens status andthe new family Code, is very successful in providing us with a background history of gender inequality and feminine resistance. In the current context, it is a preciousaccount, both because it introduces several opinions and attitudes of womentowards society, and also because it gives a voice to women like Itto whose strugglefor freedom and equality were never acknowledged, neither when they were

unfairly arrested, nor now, at a time when human abuse is under review. Lalla Jmilais probably one of Ben Bouchtas best plays, skilfully intertwining personal andpolitical histories. The result is a deeply moving performance, centred around twolong suffering women on a quest for self-acceptance and freedom. Lalla Jmila isalso an excellent example of the current renewal of the Moroccan theatre scene:although it has been considered to be in crisis for decades, it is graduallyintroducing new talents, both writers and directors. The protagonists of this younggeneration of theatre-makers are generally highly aware of the social and political


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issues occupying the country, produce works that are very aware of their context,and invite us to reflect and debate around various issues. Ben Bouchta is probablyone of the most talented writers of this dynamic movement, having alreadyreceived several prices for his work: he received a price for Best Text for Lalla

Jmila at the 200 National Theatre festival. In a wider context of widespread

reforms and liberalization, Lalla Jmila is an excellent example of a politicallyactive piece of art, making us question current issues by linking personal narrativesto political changes.

Bibliography:

Amine, Khalid, 2007, Performing Gender on the Tremulous Moroccan Body, in TheDrama Review, Vol. 51: 4, pp 167- 173

Baker, Alison, 1998, Voices of Resistance , State University of New York Press

Ben Bouchta, Zoubeir, 2007, Lalla Jmila , translated by Mustapha Hilal Soussi, ICPS

Erlanger & Mekhennet, 2009, Family Code gets nudge, but women seek a push , inthe New York Times, 18/09/2009

Rouggany, Khadijah, 2006, quoted in Kramer, J., The Crusader: Letter from Morocco , The New Yorker

Yassine, Nadia, 2004, Interview published in Tremlett

Zvan Elliott, Katja, 2009, Reforming the Moroccan Personal Status Code: Arevolution for Whom? in Mediterranean Politics, Vol. 14: 2, pp213-227

lalla jmila polyvocia

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