Feminist Traditions in Andalusi-Moroccan Oral Narratives

248 Pages·2009·4.982 MB·English

by  Hasna Lebbady (auth.)

Feminist Traditions in Andalusi-Moroccan
Oral Narratives
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Feminist Traditions in
Andalusi-Moroccan
Oral Narratives
Hasna Lebbady
FEMINIST TRADITIONS IN ANDALUSI-MOROCCAN ORAL NARRATIVES
Copyright © Hasna Lebbady, 2009.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-61940-1
All rights reserved.
First published in 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-38217-0 ISBN 978-0-230-10073-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230100732
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: October 2009
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Stylized ink drawings by Carol Gharghur, Copyright Carol Gharghur.
Cover photograph: “The interior of an Andalusi-Moroccan house in
the medina of Tetouan,” by Diana Adams. Copyright Diana Adams.
Material from “Redefining the Margins: Embodied Knowledge in
‘Ali and a Spinner Too?’ ” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies,
vol. 12: 2 (2003), 131–40. Courtesy of Taylor & Francis: http/www.
informaworld.com.
Information from “Of Women-Centered Moroccan Tales and
Their Imagined Communities,” ed. Nabil Matar and Bindu Malieckal,
The Muslim World, 95, 2 (2005): 217–230. Courtesy of Blackwell.
For my daughter, Hiam
And for all the students, whom I have had the privilege to teach
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Notes on Transliteration xi
Introduction Re-Membering: From Memory to History 1
Chapter 1 Aisha the Carpenter’s Daughter 29
Chapter 2 Ali and a Spinner Too? 55
Chapter 3 Lawza el-Bhiya 77
Chapter 4 Who’ll Buy a Word? 103
Chapter 5 Aisha Jarma 129
Chapter 6 The Female Camel 153
Chapter 7 Woman as the Source of Good 175
Notes 201
Bibliography 225
Index 235
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Acknowledgments
F
irst and foremost I would like to thank all the women in Tetouan,
including family and friends, who shared with me their versions
of the tales that appear in this book, without which it could never
have materialized. For their help with different aspects of the tales and
related matters, I am particularly grateful to my mother Badria Raghun,
my sister Asmae Lebbadi, as well as to Chafiqa Medina, Alia Raissouni,
Zoubeida Afailal, Fama Erzini, Kinza Medina, Zohra El Ayachi, and
Ashusha Nejjar. Apart from being very helpful, these ladies transformed
the task of collecting the tales into a veritable pleasure.
For her stylized ink drawings I am most obliged to my friend, Carol
Gharghur—a professional artist based in Barcelona, Spain—who
expressed such good faith in my project, long before it began to mate-
rialize, and offered to illustrate the tales about which she sensed my
excitement. The illustrations that she made—specifically for this book
project—provide another dimension through which the tales can be
perceived and greatly enhance the overall purpose of this book. Both
her encouragements as a friend and her professionalism were essential
for bringing this work to completion.
For the front page photograph many warm thanks go to Diana
Adams, a friend who is also a professional artist and photographer. She
responded to my request for photographs of the interior of Andalusi
houses in the medina of Tetouan by lugging a huge camera and other
equipment with her all the way from the United States and spending a
whole day taking photographs. She did it all so unquestioningly, gen-
erously, and understandingly, with complete faith in my project, that
I was deeply touched and thus really motivated to bring the project to
conclusion.
For taking the time to respond to my queries concerning such mat-
ters as Andalusi music and girls’ schools, showing me around his beau-
tiful Andalusi-Moroccan house in the medina of Tetouan, and inviting