Follow Us
From the Editors
Jadaliyya Launches DARS Page: Daily Acts of Resistance and Subversion
Tadween Publishing Blog is here! Check it out
Jadaliyya's first book is now available! Click here.
Want to find out about new books? Visit our expanding NEWTON page. Click here.
Interested in writing a Review for Jadaliyya? Visit our Call for Reviews here.
الآن . . . القسم العربي بحلة جديدة
Jadaliyya Launches Photography Page (click here!)
Call for Photos: Become a Contributing Photographer at Jadaliyya
Morocco
Positioning Gender Fluidity in Francophone Maghrebi Literature
![[A screenshot from Tahar Ben Jelloun's film, La nuit sacrée. Image from Universcine.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-02-17at10.44.15AM.png "[A screenshot from Tahar Ben Jelloun's film, La nuit sacrée. Image from Universcine.]")
The journey of self-discovery is a recurring theme in Francophone Maghrebi literature and film. Authors and directors place characters in a struggle against forces in both French and Maghrebi society, evoking various themes through which characters define themselves. While these characters embark on different paths in terms of their search for self-discovery, they prove that identities are not rigid. A multitude of factors contribute to the formation of these identities, illustrating a fluidity that breaks down common perceptions and narratives. One common way characters embark on this journey of self-discovery is through gender identification. Two such characters are ...
Keep Reading »Mohamed Majd
The great Moroccan actor Mohamed Majd passed away last Thursday, at the age of seventy-three, at a clinic in Casablanca. He was admitted the week before for respiratory problems, following a short stay in Dubai to promote Noureddine Lakhmari’s latest feature Zero (2012). Majd plays one of the lead roles in this film about police corruption, social exclusion, and an anti-hero's redemption through love found in the film-noirish streets of downtown Casablanca. The renowned actor was laid to rest in Casablanca, where he was born in 1940. His death follows the recent loss of many figures of Moroccan cinema's first generation of directors (Ahmed Bouanani), actors (Hassan ...
Keep Reading »A New Revolt in Morocco?: An Interview with Mohamed El Marouani
![[Mohamed El Marouani. Image from Demain Online.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-01-16at7.47.27PM.png "[Mohamed El Marouani. Image from Demain Online.]")
[Mohamed El Marouani is the author of Abdessalam Yassine's funeral oration, who died on 13 December 2012. Sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for "conspiring against state security," El Marouani was released during the wake of the February 20 Movement. He is the founder of the Al Umma, which he hopes to transform into a political party, however, he has been barred from doing so. The following interview was orginally published in French on Salah Elayoubi's blog and translated to English by Allison L. McManus.] Ahmed Benseddik and Salah Elayaoubi (AB and SE): We remember the eulogy that you gave at the funeral of Sheikh Yassine. Those of us ...
Keep Reading »Mohamed El Marouani: « Les ingrédients d’une nouvelle vague de révolte, sont désormais réunis »
![[Mohamed El Marouani. Image de Demain Online.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-01-16at7.03.08PM.png "[Mohamed El Marouani. Image de Demain Online.]")
[Mohamed El Marouani est l'auteur de l'oraison funèbre de Abdessalam Yassine. Condamné à une peine de vingt-cinq ans de prison, pour complot contre la sureté de l'état, il est libéré dans le sillage du mouvement du 20 février. Il est le fondateur de l'association Al Oumma qu'il aimerait transformer en parti politique, mais pour lequel il a essuyé un refus.] Ahmed Benseddik et Salah Elayoubi (AB et SE): On se souvient de l’oraison funèbre que vous avez prononcée aux funérailles du Cheikh Yassine. Ceux qui vous ne vous connaissaient pas ont pu apprécier vos talents oratoires, alors que vous meniez une violente charge contre ceux que vous qualifiez de ...
Keep Reading »Penser le changement de l'éducation au Maroc : Interview de Nabil Belkabir, membre de l'UECSE
![[Un sit-un de l'UECSE, avec une bannière qui dit « Nous voulons étudier » en arabe. Image de la page d'UECSE sur Facebook.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-01-13at11.29.48PM.png "[Un sit-un de l'UECSE, avec une bannière qui dit « Nous voulons étudier » en arabe. Image de la page d'UECSE sur Facebook.]")
Trente pour cent, c’est le taux d’analphabétisme donné par les autorités au Maroc, qui est encore plus élevé chez les femmes et en milieu rural. Mais trente pour cent c’est aussi le chiffre du chômage avancé par la Banque mondiale pour les 15-29 ans (qui représentent quarante-quatre pour cent de la population en âge de travailler), alors même que la majorité d’entre eux est diplômée. Si cela traduit une faille et une inadaptation du système éducatif marocain aux réalités économiques et sociales du Maroc, les déficiences en matière de politique éducative ne font qu’aggraver les possibilités d’insertion des jeunes marocains au sein d’une société en mutation et leur ...
Keep Reading »Politics after Abdessalam Yassine
![[The coffin of Sheikh Abdessalam Yassine arrives at the cemetery in Rabat, Morocco, Friday, 14 December 2012, as many thousands of people attend the funeral marching silently through the streets of the capital. Sheikh Abdessalam Yassine, the 84-year old charismatic religious leader and founder of Morocco's largest opposition movement Adl wal Ihsan (Justice and Spirituality), and longtime opponent of two Moroccan kings, died Thursday. Yassine accused the monarchy of being corrupt and dictatorial and questioned its claim to religious legitimacy, and spent a decade under house arrest at the hands of Morocco's former ruler, King Hassan II. Photo by Abdeljalil Bounhar via AP]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2012-12-16at10.40.46AM.png "[The coffin of Sheikh Abdessalam Yassine arrives at the cemetery in Rabat, Morocco, Friday, 14 December 2012, as many thousands of people attend the funeral marching silently through the streets of the capital. Sheikh Abdessalam Yassine, the 84-year old charismatic religious leader and founder of Morocco's largest opposition movement Adl wal Ihsan (Justice and Spirituality), and longtime opponent of two Moroccan kings, died Thursday. Yassine accused the monarchy of being corrupt and dictatorial and questioned its claim to religious legitimacy, and spent a decade under house arrest at the hands of Morocco's former ruler, King Hassan II. Photo by Abdeljalil Bounhar via AP]")
Abdessalam Yassine has died. Founder and leader of the Jamaa Al Adl Wal Ihsane, Yassine - known to his followers as Sheikh Yassine - was perhaps the strongest figure in opposition to the power of the Moroccan monarchy. Yassine died early the morning of 13 December 2012, at the age of eighty-four, in his home in Salé, the working class city adjacent to Morocco’s political capital of Rabat. Political expression in Moroccan society must be understood in terms of its environment: a repressive monarchist state. Because institutional politics in the country mainly represent the political hegemony of the makhzen, the political role of social actors outside of formal ...
Keep Reading »Marrakech Event: Art Practice and Research in North Africa and the Middle East Resources and Translations (12-13 December)
![[Dar al-Ma’mûn logo. Image from dam-arts.org]](/content_images/3/sm_daralmamunweb.jpg "[Dar al-Ma’mûn logo. Image from dam-arts.org]")
Art Practice and Research in North Africa and the Middle East Resources and Translations 12 & 13 December 2012 Dar al-Ma’mûn, Marrakech In collaboration with the National Institute of Art History (INHA, Paris), the residency center for artists and translators Dar al-Ma’mûn will host a symposium in Marrakech under the title Artistic Practice and Research in the Maghreb and the Middle East: Resources and Translations. The symposium is convened by Omar Berrada (Dar al-Ma’mûn) and Zahia Rahmani (INHA) with contributions from Sam Bardaouil, Omezine Benchikha, Ali Benmakhlouf, Hassan Darsi, Amine El Gotaibi, Ayoub El Mouzaine, Simohammed ...
Keep Reading »From Opposition to Puppet: Morocco’s Party of Justice and Development
![[PJD party leaders celebrate their win in Morocco's legislative elections. Image by Magharebia/Flickr.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2012-11-23at9.35.12PM.png "[PJD party leaders celebrate their win in Morocco's legislative elections. Image by Magharebia/Flickr.]")
A protest repressed, a journalist beaten, an artist detained, a newspaper censored, and an activist tortured. Sixteen months after what was hailed as a “landmark” constitutional referendum, and exactly one year after a new government was elected, like a broken record, headlines from Morocco continue to repeat themselves. When the announcement for the 25 November 2011 parliamentary elections was made, the February 20th Movement and its supporters quickly agreed to boycott––a decision rooted in the prediction that the elections would bring about no real change. A year after the elections that gave the Party of Justice and Development (PJD) a majority win, the “path of ...
Keep Reading »Plurality, Hybridity, and the Self: A Review of Benjamin Stora's "Voyages en postcolonies"
Benjamin Stora, Voyages en postcolonies. Paris : Stock, 2012. Si je dis “L'Algérie est un pays musulman,” on m'accuse de faire le jeu des intégristes. Si je dis “L'Algérie n'est qu'un pays républicain,” on me rétorquera qu'il ne faut pas oublier qu'elle est un pays musulman. La France fonctionnne par images fixes, alors que l'Algérie échappe aux définintions simples. Une sorte de mixité, de métissage, de pluralité, de circulation sur fond d'héritages multiples a modelé le pays. If I say "Algeria is a Muslim country," I get accused of supporting (Islamic) integrism. If I say "Algeria is a republican country," I'm told that you ...
Keep Reading »Chomsky on the Western Sahara and the “Arab Spring”
![[An image of the aftermath of the October 2010 protests in Gdeim Izik. Image from Wikimedia Commons.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2012-10-30at1.39.23PM.png "[An image of the aftermath of the October 2010 protests in Gdeim Izik. Image from Wikimedia Commons.]")
One of the most significant consequences of the term “Arab Spring” has been the evocation of a constructed timeline that placed the protests in the North Africa and the Middle East within a limited spectrum of time and space. The desire to enforce problematic nominal labels produces a narrative that shapes the way certain events are understood and discussed. The result is the acceptance of what is or is not considered legitimate dissent and the denial or reduction of historically embedded forces that continue to shape realities in the Middle East and North Africa. Since last year, Noam Chomsky has argued that the so-called “Arab Spring” did not begin in Tunisia, ...
Keep Reading »October Culture
![[A Butterfly in New York City. Image from Sinan Antoon]](/content_images/3/sm_Butterfly.jpg "[A Butterfly in New York City. Image from Sinan Antoon]")
Jadaliyya's October culture bouquet features: Marilyn Hacker translates Five Poems by Rachida Madani. Maymanah Farhat introduces Helen Zughaib's "Stories My Father Told Me." Mai Serhan writes on "Huda Lutfi: The Artist and the Historical Moment". Andre Naffis-Sahley translates "Glory to Those Who Torture Us" a poem by Abdellatif Laabi. All previous culture posts can be accessed here. To contribute, comment, or complain: culture@jadaliyya.com
Keep Reading »Five Poems by Rachida Madani
![[Rachida Madani at a Reading. Image from Author]](/content_images/3/sm_Rachida.png "[Rachida Madani at a Reading. Image from Author]")
TALES OF A SEVERED HEAD Rachida Madani Translated by Marilyn Hacker The First Tale I What city and what night since it’s night in the city when a woman and a train-station argue over the same half of a man who is leaving? He is young, handsome he is leaving for a piece of white bread. She is young, beautiful as a springtime cluster trying to flower for the last time for her man who is leaving. But the train arrives but the branch breaks but suddenly it’s raining in the station in the midst of spring. And the train emerges from all directions It whistles and goes right through the woman the whole length of her. Where the woman bleeds, there ...
Keep Reading »HRW Report on Repression and Reform in Morocco and the Western Sahara
[The following report was released by Human Rights Watch on 31 January 2013.] Moroccans still await tangible improvements in human rights a year after the adoption of a progressive new constitution and the election of an Islamist-led parliament and government, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2013. Even as government ministers talked of reform, the courts imprisoned dissidents during 2012 under repressive laws curtailing free speech, and after unfair trials. The police ...
Keep Reading »Mali in Focus, Part Two: A War That Threatens the Entire Region
[This article is the second of a three-part series featuring different perspectives on the recent developments in Mali. Previously published: "Mali in Focus, Part One: The Jihadist Offensive Revisited"] "...This conflict is legitimate and vital to the security of the French. We can not expect to maintain our lifestyles and our prosperity if we do not go outside our country to participate in the stabilization and resolution of crises, eradicating threats that could inevitably threaten us ...
Keep Reading »قراءة هادئة في نداء 13 يناير
منذ شهور انطلقت على الفايسبوك نداءات تدعو للتظاهر في المدن والقرى المغربية، بل وفي العواصم الأجنبية من أجل المطالبة بالتغيير الجذري للنظام السياسي في المغرب. فبعدما كانت حركة 20 فبراير تطالب بالملكية البرلمانية كحل للأزمة التي تمر فيها البلاد وفاء لشعار اليسار القديم تحت حكم الراحل الحسن الثاني، تحول المطلب اليوم، في ظل حكم ابنه محمد السادس، إلى "إسقاط النظام" في تحول نوعي وغير مسبوق. وقد شق هذا الشعار طريقه إلى الشارع المغربي حيث دُوِّن على جدران بعض الأحياء الشعبية، كما أورد أكثر من مصدر ...
Keep Reading »Raped, Without Justice, and Without Hope
Last year, Moroccan civil society was highly mobilized around the case of Amina Filali—the young Moroccan girl who committed suicide after having been forced to marry her rapist. Ten months later, article 475—the article that absolves a rapist of his crimes if he marries his victim—remains in place, despite the fact that calls for its removal were a central part of the mobilizations. Today, the tragic story of another Moroccan girl—who in 2010 was raped by a stranger during her commute to Marrakech—is ...
Keep Reading »La somme de tous les rêves brisés d'Anfgou et d'ailleurs
Qui mieux qu’un misérable saurait narrer la tragédie qui frappe les siens ? Et comment raconter aux autres l’indicible horreur, lorsqu’à la tragédie s’ajoute la barrière de la langue ? Pour ce qui nous concerne, tout ce que nous pourrions jamais décrire de la noirceur de cette misère-là, de la morsure du froid, de l’insupportable enclavement ou de la mort du nourrisson, ne vaudra pas tripette, tant la tâche est insurmontable. Tout commence au bord d’une route incertaine. ...
Keep Reading »Art, Politics, and Critical Citizenry in Morocco: An Interview with Driss Ksikes
Driss Ksikes’ presence in Morocco is not one that is easily captured by static titles. He is at once an artist, an academic, a journalist, and an activist. However, it is his ability to transcend the rigidity of any one of these roles that has allowed him to evade stereotypes. Both his artistic and political activities have also played a hand in inspiring him as director of the Centre d’Etudes Sociales, Economiques et Managériales (CESEM). Perhaps his best descriptor is the one he has used to describe ...
Keep Reading »Signs of New Feminism? Promises of Morocco's February 20
The absence of established figures from feminist organizations is one of the most striking features of the 20 February movement in Morocco. Nevertheless, the movement shows modes of engagement with feminism, such as the call for gender equality and a practice of parity, which suggest that feminist discourse has not only penetrated the social imaginary of younger generations of activists, but also informed their practices. Signs of new gender arrangements were already visible in the first calls for ...
Keep Reading »Lonely Servitude: Child Domestic Labor in Morocco
[The following report was issued by Human Rights Watch on 15 November 2012.] Lonely Servitude: Child Domestic Labor in Morocco Executive Summary Latifa L. was twelve years old when she began working as a domestic worker in Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city. She said she was “really scared,” but a recruiter reassured her that her future employers “would be very kind” and would pay her well. It turned out to be an empty promise. Once in Casablanca—a five-hour bus journey from ...
Keep Reading »Du « péril noir » au Maroc
La récente publication du numéro 998 de Maroc Hebdo, dont la première page titre « Le péril noir », a déclenché une vive polémique au Maroc et sur la toile. Si elle met à jour une réalité bien souvent tue, elle surprend aussi un pays qui a récemment affirmé son « unité forgée par la convergence de ses composantes arabo-islamique, amazighe et saharo-hassanie (…) nourrie et enrichie de ses affluents africain, andalou, hébraïque et méditerranéen. »[1] Une publication à resituer ...
Keep Reading »Des trucs, des machins et des choses
J’ai regardé, comme vous cette vidéo édifiante, enregistrée ce lundi 17 septembre, lorsqu’au matin, avait eu lieu une invasion de fonctionnaires, au voisinage immédiat de Ali Lmrabet, celui que le régime a pensé condamner au silence en l’emprisonnant et le condamnant à une interdiction d’exercice de son métier de journaliste, pour dix ans. Les fonctionnaires qui arpentent consciencieusement la terrasse voisine, scrutent chaque mètre carré et semblent mémoriser d’occultes détails, ...
Keep Reading »Glory to Those Who Torture Us
Glory to Those Who Torture Us Abdellatif Laâbi Translated by André Naffis-Sahely glory glory we are the chosen people erected upon the peaks of fate for us the tomorrows that sing rivers of honey and milk sacrifice brothers sacrifice exile in sacrifice o the apotheosis of throats ready heritage Abraham’s sadism crimes on the table heritage faith struck down by miracles the desert’s spontaneous abundance miracle we do not suffer o the hired killer’s unblemished brow the tickling of ...
Keep Reading »Averting a Moroccan Revolution: The Monarchy's Preemptive Spatial Tactics and the Quest for Stability
[The following report was issued by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs on 30 September 2012. An article form of the analysis of this report was recently published on Jadaliyya and can be accessed by clicking here.] Averting a Moroccan Revolution: The Monarchy's Preemptive Spatial Tactics Summary Morocco is often seen as the exception to the “Arab Spring”. The country’s socio-political profile suggested that it was only a matter of time for the disgruntled ...
Keep Reading »Hot on Facebook
Such shows of force on our campuses, as much as the actual acts of violence themselves, need to be declared completely unacceptable.click | email | tweet
.jpg){kind=small}
From Jadaliyya Reports
Top Jadaliyya Tags
Jadalicious / جدلشس
Noteworthy
Twitter Updates
Jadaliyya Features
.jpg)
Latest Entries
View All Entries »- Jadaliyya Launches Turkey Page
- 'All of a Sudden!': Gezi Park Resistance in Ankara
- Producing Pera: A Levantine Family and the Remaking of Istanbul
- Defiant Turkish Demonstrators 'Finding New Ways to Protest': Turkey Page Co-Editor Nazan Ustundag on Democracy Now!
- Occupy Angara: A Situation Assessment in a State of Emergency
- Defining the Terrain of Struggle in Taksim
- Egypt Media Roundup (June 17)
- حديثي مع الشيطان
- New Texts Out Now: Markus Dressler, Writing Religion: The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam
- Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (June 18)
- فرانكشتاين في بغداد
- O.I.L. Media Roundup (17 June)
- هل يمكن تطوير الجدل حول المثلية الجنسية؟
- Resisting Tear Gas Together
- معتقلو موريتانيا في غوانتانامو
- Last Week on Jadaliyya (June 10-16)
- Will the Presidential Elections “Cure the Pain” of the Iranian People?
- الانترنت والعولمة الثقافية
- #resistankara: Notes of a Woman Resisting
- It Is About the Park: A Struggle for Turkey’s Cities
Pages/Sections
Archive
©2010-2013 by the Arab Studies Institute. All Rights Reserved. info@jadaliyya.com
site by concepcion design