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This project is supported by La Fondation CHANEL

With over 160 poems and counting, Fatima Tabaamrant’s raïssa manages to shatter taboos and defend the Amazigh identity. A member of parliament from 2011 to 2016, she boldly addressed the Moroccan congress in Tamazight, on the topic of teaching the language in Moroccan schools. But her commitment reaches beyond the question of identity. The raïssa challenges the state over youth unemployment, corruption and the place of women in society. Every concert is an event, a political and artistic meeting, during which Fatima Tabaamrant never stops clamoring for freedom and women’s rights.

“If we fail to oppose those who want to cover women in black veils, our freedoms will be threatened”

Originally from the southern Morocco village of Mirleft, Khadija Aroujhal traces her commitment to the emancipation of women to something that was torn away from her: a poem she wrote in Tifinagh (the Amazigh alphabet), when she was in middle school. Since then, she has decided to only ever write in Tifinagh, and to defend her identity. This lively woman follows in the footsteps of Fatima Tabaamrant. In her sometimes subversive poetry, she broaches taboo subjects such as love, illegal immigration, the condition of women, and religion. She never ceases to speak up for women’s freedom, regardless of criticism directed at her by islamists.

In these traditional societies, poetry is at once creative expression, wisdom and a voice of dissent. Female poets call for resistance against male domination. Poetry is also a battle for language and democracy.

A new generation of feminists, also lead by Khadija Arouhal Tililly.

“My message is for all of humanity.”

Tassanou tayrinou, by Kamal Hachkar is a musical road movie whose title in Amazigh means « my liver, my love ». 

Femmes berbères de part et d'autre de la Méditerranée ; domination, subjectivité et subversion symbolique, de Tassadit Yacine aux Éditions du Croquant.

[Berber women from both sides of the Mediterranean ; dominance, subjectivity and symbolic subversion ]

In this book, the author gives their voice back to women and explains through eyewitness accounts, the dominance dynamic between genders and the consequences of that on their bodies and lives.

 

Fatima Tabaamrant’s non-profit organization celebrates Berber New Year festivities every year:

Tairin Wakal: http://tairinwakal.com/

 

Albums by Fatima Tabaarmant:

- Tayri Noun Aya Marg

- Lahd Imourig

- Ajddig

 

Tamazighte dance and music

Les femmes dans la musique Amazighe, Farida Benlyazid, Fondation Leila Mezian [Women in Amazigh music]

- Musique Amazighe d'hier et d'aujourd'hui, Farida Benlyazid,

Fondation Leila Mezian

[Amazigh music from yesterday and today]

THE NEW GENERATION OF FEMINISTS

TO KNOW MORE

ART AS A WEAPON OF EMANCIPATION

Une quête de la vérité sur la route des larmes

 

C'est à l’hôtel Bonaventure de Montréal qu'ont eu lieu les premières auditions de la commission d’enquête. Fanny Wylde retrouve Cheryl, de la communauté Mohawk, sidérée par le désintérêt de la police pour la recherche de sa sœur après le signalement de sa disparition. Carleen, mère de trois enfants, sera retrouvée par hasard par un chasseur, sept semaines plus tard, à deux kilomètres de chez elle. Morte. Elle s'est suicidée. Cheryl s’interroge encore sur une forme de racisme, l’apathie politique et l’indifférence des médias qui font passer ces crimes pour de simple faits divers. Pour Cheryl et pour toutes les autres familles de victimes, la commission d’enquête offre une lueur d’espoir et de justice.

RETURN TO THE ROOTS

It is among the mountains of her native village of Id Salem, in the Souss region, that Fatima Tabaamrant comes to recharge her batteries. She holds dear the image of her grandmother and all the women who sang to her about the legend of Queen Kahina, riding on her own across all of North Africa at the head of an army of men. Words that call for hope and resistance. Today, the village is partly abandoned, its inhabitants having fled poverty. But the adobe walls still stand, attesting to all the Amazigh values that celebrate secularity and solidarity.

“I feel deep inner peace when I am in my native village”

Dates :

Numbers :

Film :

Livres :

FATIMA TABAAMRANT: AN AMAZIGH VOICE IN MOROCCO.

After the death of her mother when she was three, Fatima grew up in an abusive household and was forced into marriage at the age of 15.  These experiences have shaped her combative spirit forever. Fleeing from the high mountains of the anti-Atlas she traveled to Agadir, where she labored as a cleaning lady. This is when good fortune knocked on her door. In 1983, standing in as last-minute replacement for a missing dancer during a concert, she is noticed by raïss Mohamed ben Belfkhikh, who decides to take her under his wing. A star is born.  By the late 1980s, the Amazigh movement gets organized and Fatima starts to reflect upon the question of identity. Intellectuals send her material on Amazigh culture and civilization, she learns Tamazight and becomes a popular activist icon.

“My school is life”

Berbers or Imazighen, are the original dwellers of Morocco, but for a lengthy period of time, their identity was smothered by the country’s push toward arabization. In the 1980s, some Berber activists were even imprisoned. It wasn’t until the twenty-first Century and the accession to power of king Mohammed VI, that the country reconciled with its Berber roots. In 2001, the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture was created and the language, Tamazight, was officially recognized in 2011. 

In the predominantly Berber-speaking Souss region, local traditions are still kept alive, such as the raïs (ra-ees), master singers of traditional arts. These troubadours sing the history of the villages and deliver messages on societal topics. 

Fatima Tabaamrant is one of the only raïssas to have made a name for herself on stage and in daily life. She defends the Amazigh culture and the rights of this marginalized underprivileged community - and in particular the rights of its women, who are doubly impacted.

“I consider myself the mother of all Amazigh children”

A COMMITED AMAZIGH ICON

THE PORTRAIT

THE PORTRAIT

ART AS A WEAPON OF EMANCIPATION

ART AS A WEAPON OF EMANCIPATION

RETURN TO THE ROOTS

RETURN TO THE ROOTS

THE NEW GENERATION OF FEMINISTS

THE NEW GENERATION OF FEMINISTS

SOUSS-MASSA POPULATION:

MILLIONS

MILLIONS

INHABITANTS

(7,9% of the total population of Morocco)

OF THE POPULATION IN THE SOUSS-MASSA REGION LIVES IN POVERTY

MOROCCANS ARE BERBEROPHONE, WHICH IS NEARLY 40% OF THE COUNTRY’S POPULATION

CREATION OF IRCAM (L'INSTITUT ROYAL DE LA CULTURE AMAZIGHE DU MAROC/ THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF MOROCCAN AMAZIGH CULTURE)

THE CONSTITUTION RECOGNIZES TAMAZIGHT AS AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

TEACHING THE TAMAZIGHT LANGUAGE BECOMES MANDATORY.

MOROCCANS LIVE IN POVERTY, WHICH IS 11,7% OF THE POPULATION

FEWER THAN

OF PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS LEARN BERBER IN SCHOOL.

DES FEMMES ANALPHABÈTES AU MAROC

,1

,9

%

%

%

FATIMA      TABAAMRANT

FATIMA      TABAAMRANT

THE NEW GENERATION OF FEMINISTS

CRÉDITS

RETURN TO THE ROOTS

ART AS A WEAPON OF EMANCIPATION

TO KNOW MORE

THE PORTRAIT

THE SUBJECT

HOME  /  NEWS  /  PRESS  /  NEWSLETTER  /  CONTACT US  /  SPONSORS

HOME  /  NEWS  /  PRESS  /  NEWSLETTER 

CONTACT US  /  SPONSORS

This project is supported by La Fondation CHANEL