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The Certificate of Virginity: Honor, Marriage and Moroccan Female Immigration Theresa Thao Pham Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2011 © 2011 Theresa Thao Pham All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT The Certificate of Virginity: Honor, Marriage, and Moroccan Female Immigration Theresa Thao Pham Although Moroccan female-initiated migration to Europe has captured the attention of scholars in various fields of study, the majority of these studies have focused on macro-level analysis of resettlement and integration patterns. These studies, however, have bypassed the subtle impact of the socio-cultural junction between Islamic ideals and Western values. The interchange of the socio-cultural values resulting from Moroccan female immigration to Spain have complicated the Moroccan system of honor and marriage, which has played a crucial part in defining gender roles, space, production and reproduction. Using participant observation, semi-structured interviews, oral histories, and focus groups, this study aims to examine the effects immigration to Spain have on honor and marriage for Moroccan immigrant women. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables, Maps and Genograms ii Acknowledgements iii Introduction 4 I. Space and Place 19 II. Traditional Marriages and Honor 50 III. Migratory Honor and Production 100 IV. Arrangements and Choices 131 V. The Certificate of Virginity: Honor and Shame Redux 173 VI. Dishonor and Its Discontents 191 VII. Divorced, Singlehood and Honor 214 VIII. Veiling 243 Conclusion 269 References 277 Appendices 305 i LIST OF MAPS, PHOTOS AND GENOGRAMS MAPS 1. Map of Morocco 1 2. Map of Morocco and Spain 2 3. Map of Spain 3 PHOTOGRAPHS 1. Building and Houses in Larache 26 2. Larache's Seaside 27 3. A Typical Moroccan Salon 28 4. Celebration at the Centro Hispano-Marroqui 49 5. Wedding Preparations 99 6. Tangier's Port and Ferry 130 7. Wedding Reenactment in Madrid 172 8. The Women's Group at the Centro Hispano-Marroqui 242 9. Gossiping at the Centro Hispano-Marroqui 267 10. Young Moroccan Girls at the Beach 268 GENOGRAMS 1. Khadija's Education and Occupation Genogram 145 2. The Education and Occupation Genogram of Suad and Samira 146 3. The Education and Occupation Genogram of Yasmin 146 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have encountered many people along this arduous yet rewarding path to whom I am greatly thankful. Some people I cannot thank by name due to confidentiality while others deserve to have their names carved in gold for their generosity, patience, and support throughout the years. First and foremost, this dissertation would not be possible without the guidance and wisdom of Dr. Lambros Comitas, my advisor and sponsor. His kindness and understanding have helped me through all my multiple academic and personal crises. Because of him, I have learned to love and respect fieldwork and the discipline of anthropology. Anthropologists have been known to veer from the beaten path so to have someone direct and redirect you through the curves and detours of this field is invaluable. Lambros never gave up on me even when I wanted to give up on my dissertation. For all his support and encouragement, I owe Lambros my deepest gratitude and appreciation. I would also like to thank Dr. Hope Jensen Leichter for inspiring and encouraging me to forge ahead in my academic career. She has given me the moral, academic, and financial support throughout my studies at Teachers College. She has served as my boss, my mentor, and role model from the beginning. Working with her at the Elbenwood Center for the Study of the Family as Educator has provided me with ample support and opportunities any graduate student could ever want. I am also pleased to thank Dr. Laurel Kendall, another important mentor and role model with whom I have worked and confided. She has not only encouraged me but has also provided me with much needed assistance in bringing the dissertation together. Her enthusiasm and ingenious ideas have helped me throughout the writing process. Additionally, I will always look back at my internship at the American Museum of Natural History with fond memories because of Laurel. I would like to thank Dr. David Gilmore for his guidance and expertise on the topic of iii honor and on the Mediterranean area. He has taken his valuable time to answer my questions and concerns and has often surprised me with his quick responses and generous advice. I am extremely grateful to have him involved in the culmination of the dissertation. This is also a opportunity to express my respect to Dr. George Bond, from whom I have learned a great deal about urban anthropology and immigration and for serving as the chair of my dissertation committee. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. William Heaney and Dr. Andy Hamid for their guidance and support during the early part of my doctoral studies. Apart from the ivory towers of academia, I have also relied on many people in the field and in my personal life. I would like to thank Dr. Cynthia Plette (NIMAR and SSR) and Ms. Stephanie Bordat (Global Rights), who have provided me with much needed resources and information in Morocco. I also want to express my gratitude to staff at the Centro Hispano-Marroqui, particularly Maria and Carolina, for providing me with the resources to conduct my fieldwork in Spain. Most importantly, I could not have completed my study without the Moroccan women in Morocco and in Spain who have given me their time and trusted me with intimate information. They have not only welcomed me into their lives but have also provided me with their companionship during my pregnancy. I am also pleased to have a number of friends who have made this achievement possible. First of all, I am thankful to Amy Tijong, Jennifer Franco, Geoffrey Walker, and Lisa Moore for their encouragement, support, and at times, a place to stay. I would also like to thank Ivan and Juana del Rio for their love and support throughout the years. I would have left Spain and my fieldwork a long time ago without their friendship. Finally, I am most grateful for my immediate family, my parents and my siblings. I would like to especially thank sister, Ruby Stuart, for taking her valuable time and effort to edit the final draft of the dissertation. This book is dedicated to my parents, Kim Lan Le and Pierre The Pham, whose unconditional love and support have made all my achievement worthwhile. I can only hope to be as good at parenting as they have been with me. iv This dissertation has benefitted from the generous funding of CIFAS (Comitas Institute for Anthropological Study) and the Elbenwood Center for the Study of the Family as Educator. v For My Parents & Daria vi 1 MAP OF MOROCCO 2 MOROCCO AND SPAIN 3 MAP OF SPAIN 4 INTRODUCTION Abu Marwan let all make free With his good ladies' chastity That he might gratify his whim; A buck was what attracted him. I taxed him with indecency, And rated him for cuckoldry; These lines he quoted in reply To prove him impudent and sly: “I got, if I must answer true, Exactly what I wanted to: What makes the other fellows rue so, I was the only one to do so! – Ibn Hazm1, The Ring of the Dove, p.245 Honor, once a concept that unified an entire area of study in the field of anthropology, is still considered a fundamental human condition. The dignity that we feel when honor has bestowed upon us by our social group separates us from lesser primates. Without honor, we go around with our heads bow in shame. Honor is the affirmation, an affirmation of status within our social group that gives us our sense of worth. Nevertheless, some would argue that honor is no longer as vital in Western societies as in the past when the individual had no claim of his own and had to surrender to the group's needs. Honor ruled during the days when laws and rights were premature and clans, tribes and kin groups had to defend their property and worth by retaliating with vengeance. Modern Western societies, however, have created and enforced laws to protect individual members and their property. By submitting to formal rules and laws, individuals have abdicated their need to defend the infringement upon their group. Society now apprehends, judges, and punishes. In essence, the culture of law has replaced the culture of honor.2 Honor, nonetheless, exists in places where laws are operative and effective. Although personal honor and dignity may have a place in Western societies, the social honor of the past 1 Ibn Hazm (Abu Muhammed 'Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Sa'id ibn Hazm), born in 994 in Cordova, was a renowned Andalusian poet and philosopher. 2 The 'culture of a honor' is a term used by social psychologist, Richard Nisbett (1996), in discussing the predilection for violent behaviors in the southern part of the United States. 5 still exists in places where group identity, traditional values, and little enforcement of the law, or the distrust in the law, are practiced. In Morocco, social honor, more specifically family honor, remains vital to the status and the reputation of kin groups. The men in Morocco guard and are granted honor, whereas women uphold the family honor by preserving their virginity and chastity. As family honor hangs on a balance with the reproductive value of its female members, the display of the woman's sexual preservation is publically presented during the wedding ceremony.

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