Gender and Freedom in Morocco

My paper will illuminate the connections between Kharbusha’s protest, which occurred on the eve of colonial rule in Morocco, and the call to reform the Mudawwana (Code of Personal Status) in 1993. Kharbusha performed songs to confront the tyranny of the government and to encourage a rebellion in 1895. Both events bear on multiple aspects of women’s agency that challenged the traditional Moroccan male-controlled values restricting women’s rights and individual freedoms. The case of Kharbusha is evidence of the emancipatory expressions that preceded the Western discourse of citizenship and human rights. Indeed, major political and social concerns that shake North Africa today revolve around two contrasting political philosophies: secularist and traditionalist. The secularist discourse is often regarded as a consequence of the colonial encounter and focuses on the language of the civil rights of citizens. The traditionalist discourse favors an identity and legal codes based on religious sources and some of its tenets explicitly contradict the concept and practice of individual rights. Often these two political philosophies collide in a struggle for political power and authority thus creating the tension that have played out and continue to play out in North Africa.