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“Il y a un lien intime entre le corps écrivant et l’objet de l’écriture” Body, Gender and Pain in Moroccan (Zekri, “Le sujet et son corps” 46). Prison Memoir adīth al-‘Atama. Ḥ Introduction Few years after Moroccan independence from the French protectorate, occurred in 1956, king Hassan II imposed a long-term period of massive repression against the parliamentary opposition, students’ unions and revolutionary leftist groups, as well as against military coup leaders and soldiers, Islamists, Berber and Sahrawi protesters (Abitbol 669-680; Daoud 9-340; Miller 162-220; Perrault 59-367; Martina Biondi Saoudi “Il Marocco degli Anni di piombo” 263-287, Voyage au-delà des nuits de The article explores the themes of body, tive on the manipulative use of corporeal- plomb 13-219; Vermeren, Histoire du physical pain, and corporeal memory as ity in the carceral framework, the article Maroc 20-98). They were the so-called framed by Fatna El Bouih’s and Latifa emphasizes the weaponization of wom- Moroccan , Sanawāt al-Raṣāṣ Jbabdi’s prison narratives contained in en’s bodies in undertaking a hunger strike in Arabic, années de plomb in French, Ḥadīth al-‘Atama (Tale from the Dark). which ultimately improves the inmates’ whose beginning is marked by the state of Members of the Marxist-Leninist move- conditions of detention. Furthermore, the emergency following Casablanca’s riots ment, El Bouih and Jbabdi were sub- body is defined as a crucial medium of and massacre (1965) and their conclusion jected to sensory annihilation, brutal tor- memory as the two women approach the corresponds with Hassan II’s death (1999). tures, practices of gender erosion, and recollection of violent past experiences to Criticizing a weak reformism, foot-drag- sexual abuses during the Moroccan Years restore historical truth about Moroccan ging and the wait-and-see approach of of Lead (1965 – 1999). The article provides state violence of theYears of Lead. the left-wing political parties Union a critical reading of the memoirs by iden- National des Forces Populaire (UNFP) and tifying a trajectory from a gendered Keywords: Prison Memoirs, , Parti de la Libération et du Socialisme inflicted suffering (abuses and tortures) to Years of Lead, Hunger Strike, Corporeal (PLS), the Marxist-Leninist Movement an agentive self-inflicted pain (hunger Memory (MMLM) arose with three clandestine strike). Drawing on Banu Bargu’s perspec- organizations. 23 Mars (named after the

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Casablanca riots), Ilā al-Amām (Forward), The so-called “Meknès group” (Slyomovics, Then El Bouih was transferred in the civil and, later, Li-nakhduma al-sh‘b (To Serve The Performance of Human Rights 137) prisons of Casablanca (Ghbiyla) and People) sought to overthrow the monar- included six women who did not know Meknès, where she and her comrades chical regime and support a national dem- each other before. Khadija Boukhari, decided to undertake a hunger strike in ocratic revolution. Their members were Boudda Nguia, Maria Ezzaouini, Widad order to improve their conditions and be soon placed under arrest and subjected Bouab, Latifa Jbabdi, Fatna El Bouih found recognized as political prisoners. to arbitrary detentions and torture. As the themselves sharing the same destiny of Sharing the same prison cell with Fatna, Group of 139, a large part of them received carceral coercion for their political beliefs, Latifa Jbabdi was another female member a mock mass trial in Casablanca in January being incarcerated from 1977 to 1982. of the 23 Mars movement. After her 1977, which accused the militants of “plot- release, she founded and have been ting against the State”, imposing them Born in 1956, Fatna El Bouih has been directing from 1983 to 1994 the newspa- long-term judgments (Saoudi, Voyage 14). affiliated to the clandestine Marxist group per Thamaniyyah Mars (8th March). 23 Mars based in Casablanca, where she Named after International Women’s Day, it During the Years of Lead, numerous were had moved to attend the Lycée Chawqi spread Moroccan and transnational femi- also the female militants who underwent thanks to a scholarship (Slyomovics “Fatna nist ideals. Jbabdi was one of the found- forcible disappearances, arbitrary deten- El Bouih and the Work of Memory” 41-44). ers, in 1987, of the feminist organization tions, mock trials, tortures, and death Due to her initial involvement in the UAF, Union de l‘Action Féminine. Fatna El (Saoudi, Femmes-prison 31-80; Syndacat Nationaldes lycéens and the Bouih adhered to UAF as well, engaging Slyomovics, “The Argument from the coordination of a students’ strike to pro- in the feminist mobilization for the revision Silence” 73-95). As Nadia Guessous illus- test against the closure of Union Nationale of the Mudawwana (Personal and Family trates, commenting on the work of IER des Étudiants Marocains (ANEM), she was Code) with the aim of improving women’s (Instance Equité et Réconciliation), a repar- briefly arrested for the first time in 1974. In civil rights. The two women were among ative commission established in 2004 to Maarif police station, she was raped by a the founding members, in 1999, of the restore the truth on the numerous human guard (Slyomovics, “Reparations in Observatoire Marocain des Prisons. rights violations during the Years of Lead: Morocco” 89-93). In 1977, as a university Moreover, Latifa Jbabdi was the only “While we may never know the exact num- student and a Marxist-Leninist militant, she female member in the Équité et reconcili- ber of women who were affected by polit- was abducted and has been arbitrarily ation commission (IER), the Truth and ical violence in Morocco between 1965 imprisoned for three years, serving, after a Reconciliation Commission established in and 1999, it is nevertheless noteworthy sham trial, other two years of detention. 2004 to shed light on the atrocities of the that women constitute 15% of the dossiers Initially detained in the secret prison of regime during the Years of Lead received by the IER from ‘direct victims’ Derb Moulay Chérif (Casablanca), she has (Benadada and El Bouhsini 62-86). and 46% of those filed by ‘indirect vic- been blindfolded for six months, under- tims’” (15). going brutal tortures for the entire period.

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Moroccan authorities have a long story of With her prison memoir entitled Ḥadīth al- Significantly, the same text composition denied human rights violations in the ‘Atama (Tale from the Dark)4 published in contributes to convey a sense of multi- prison environment. However, in the last 2001, Fatna El Bouih gives a detailed authorial inclusivity since Ḥadīth al-‘Atama decade of Hassan II’s long reign (1961- account of her life in prison. Her voice incorporates, in its final pages, shorter 1999) and especially with his son speaks between tortures and material memorial accounts by comrades Latifa Muhammad VI‘s ascent to the throne deprivations, but also testifies negotia- Jbabdi and Widad Bouab, who shared (1999), Morocco has attenuated the most tions with the authorities, collective resil- much of their ideological path and repres- restrictive censorship on the state vio- ience, and active practices of resistance, in sive experience with El Bouih.5 lence.1 a pervasive sense of solidarity shared with Following the release of prisoners in the her comrades. The text is a hymn of attach- By reading Ḥadīth al-‘Atama as a historical- nineties, a proliferation of historical and ment to life that emerges among the literary source, this article aims to add fur- memorial writings shedding light on the wounds inflicted by physical and psycho- ther understanding of the text seeking to inhumane conditions of detention have logical tortures. adopt a specific gaze on the physical been recorded (El Guabli “The ‘Hidden As one of the most compelling examples aspects emerging from the narration. Transcript’ of Resistance” 170-207, El and well-received testimonies about the Tracing the articulation of the pain in the Yasami and Zekri 25-34; Elinson 289-303; treatments of the Moroccan regime on female bodies, both inflicted and self- Fouet-Fauvernier 23-288; Moukhlis 347- female opponents, several scholars have inflicted, corporal and psychological, this 376; Zekri “Écrire le carcéral au Maroc” scrutinized the text. Ḥadīth al-‘Atama has article is going to show how suffering can 59-79). The adab al-sujūn (carceral litera- been analysed as a gendered memory strengthen political beliefs and become a ture) appears to be a remarkable literary from a literary theory perspective source for female agency within the trend and testimonial medium of the (Diaconoff 105-149; Hachad, Revisionary prison. In this perspective, the hunger recent Moroccan history. It illustrates con- Narratives 27-59; Orlando 273-288) and strike finds a new, pivotal dimension that ditions of detention and countless viola- by utilising historical/anthropological reconfigures the significance of the wom- tion of Moroccan political prisoners’ approaches (Menin “Rewriting the World” en’s struggle in the carceral framework human rights, also conveying anti-regime 45-60; Slyomovics “The Moroccan Equity during the Years of Lead. Furthermore, the political instances both in Arabic and and Reconciliation Commission” 10-41). As article examines how in Ḥadīth al-‘Atama French.2 it has been underlined, El Bouih’s authorial the suffering body shapes the prison Narrative and autobiographical accounts voice expresses a female collective self experience’s cognition, contributing to ascribable to adab al-sujūn present a dif- (Orlando 283; Menin, “Rewriting the define Fatna El Bouih’s and Latifa Jbabdi’s fusion among women who suffered the World” 54-6), namely a shared and gen- memorialist voices. In that respect, it is repressive grip of the regime either dered point of view on the brutalities interesting to investigate how body struc- against themselves or, as indirect victims, imposed by the regime in the seventies tures remembrances, arguing for a corpo- on their relatives.3 and eighties on female dissidents. real memory as a crucial aspect of the

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gendered historization of Moroccan Years As Fatna El Bouih recalls: “They give me a ture is evoked by Jbabdi in the following of Lead. number and a name: ‘From now on, your graphic description: The article is composed of three para- name is Rachid. Don’t move and don’t talk graphs: “From Inflicted-Pain to Bodily unless you hear your name, that is Rachid!’” There were different degrees of ‘air Reactions”, “The Self-Inflicted Pain: Agency (15)7 travel’ and they made me try them in Hunger Strike” and “Corporeal Memory”. The punishment for women who escape all, from first to last. The ‘Camel’ put It is a preliminary result of an ongoing the confined space of domesticity and the stick between my knees and arms Ph.D. research focusing on female political enter the male sphere of politics and mili- grouping them together. It was just like activism in Morocco during the Years of tancy consists of being treated as men in putting a chicken on a spit. He pulled Lead and about Moroccan women’s col- detention. Consequently, female prison- me downward with a system of knotted lective memory and public history of the ers renamed with male names are sub- ropes, until my feet were upward and last two decades. This research will hope- jected to standard treatments in the tor- my head downward. I stayed in this fully explore more in depth the chosen ture sessions aiming to extract information. position while the interrogation conti- themes, also engaging in a wider reading For their sadistic pleasure, the torturers nued in the same way as the previous of the Moroccan female memoirs related take on the name of hajj, a term that in the one, until I felt dizzy. I could stay in that to the Years of Lead. Islamic tradition indicates a man of faith position for hours, while they violently who has carried out the holy pilgrimage to beat my feet with a thick lash made of From Inflicted Pain to Bodily Reactions Mecca, and, conversely, in the context of wet ox nerves. At that point, they made The exercise of violence against women in carceral violence, denotes the person who me regain consciousness as the inter- the prison framework assumes various has the task of inflicting a journey into rogation had to continue (El Bouih 127). forms. As Ḥadīth al-‘Atama shows, a com- physical suffering.8 Torture practices bined mix of physical deprivation and include the falaqa method, that involves Physical violence includes massive and emotional displacement is added to spe- electroshocking in an airplane position, frequent doses of kicking, slapping, and cific psychological kinds of abuse damag- crucifixionà la sauce marocaine, beatings punching, causing Jbabdi’s deafness (El ing personal intimacy and gender identity upside down, rapes, and threats of gang Bouih 126) and facial disfigurement, that is of female prisoners. rapes.9 part of the erosion of personal identity The very first form of mental abuse perpe- Latifa Jbabdi narrates how a specialized operated by carceral violence. The sense trated against female detainees in Derb torturer nicknamed Camel used to ruth- of discomfort deriving from the inability to Mulay Chérif appears to be the masculin- lessly inflict her the falaqa/air travel recognize her own facial appearance is ization of their personalities.6 The jailers method. As a rite tested many times, a also evoked by Fatna El Bouih when she carry out a psychological erosion of gen- “cérémoine de la souffrance” in recalls the impossibility of seeing her face der identity which primarily derives from Foucauldian terms (Foucault 308), this tor- through a mirror for the entire period of the imposition of male names on women. imprisonment (42). Besides, as part of

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gender removal’s project and total nega- (123). Speaking about being assaulted, Interestingly, if their voice is silenced and tion of female needs, Marxist-Leninist pris- even the insects can attack female bodies the sight nullified, female detainees refine oners in Derb Moulay Chérif are not given running through them, as Latifa Jbabdi some communication strategies to convey sanitary napkins during their menstrual testifies (126). Indeed, forced immobility their feelings. They are able to communi- cycles, being forced for days into bloody and bodily privations are aggravated by cate with each other by drawing out letter clothing (Slyomovics, The Performance of the imposition of not moving even to drive profiles on the inmates’ skin to form words Human Rights 135). out fleas or cockroaches. This represents a and sentences. This tactile Arabic in “cor- Thereby, Fatna and her comrades undergo transparent image of the authorities’ poreal transmission” (The Performance of both, a gender erosion deriving from the desire to remove any residue of human Human Rights 138), as Susan Slyomovics abusive masculinization under which the dignity in the political detainees, in a defines it, is allowed by the inmates’ phys- jailers torture them, and a typically gen- never-ending time. ical proximity and has the result of creat- der-based violence consisting of the ing a mute friendship particularly charged rapes, threats of gang rape and dogs’ Nevertheless, the sensory disintegration from an emotional point of view. With this rapes, and virginity testing. imposed as part of neutralization and de- human alphabet, women in prison realize In addition to these practices, female bod- humanization of female prisoners soon an agentive exit strategy from solitude, ies are subjected to an annihilation of sen- becomes one of the women’s political individual suffering, and alienation of bod- sory perception. For the first months of detainees’ fields of manipulation and ies, performing, at the same time, subver- their arbitrary detention, female political resistance. Strategies of adaptation, mini- sive gestures of communication in their prisoners are not allowed to speak at all, mization, and acceptance of the privations physical closeness. lying on the ground in the narrow space of the senses are tools of resilience in the without the possibility of getting up. El carceral framework. In this regard, Latifa The Self-Inflicted Pain: Agency in Hunger Bouih, Jbabdi and their companions are Jbabdi affirms how she got accustomed to Strike force to live in a state of complete blind- the bandage, to identify it as an extension Notwithstanding the end of strictest prison ness with permanent eye bandages for six of her body and occasionally forgetting of regime and the relocation at civil prison of months in order to prevent the captors’ removing it in the unique possible Ghbiyla (Casablanca), Fatna’s group is far recognition, especially during the torture moment, at the toilet (El Bouih 124). from normalization in the carceral environ- sessions. The negation of sight provoked Moreover, the privation of sight strength- ment. a global decompensation of their senses, ens prisoners’ faculties of hearing and On the one hand, the inmates have worsened by the inability of moving and touch. This condition helps to identify removed the bandages and they can look speaking. At this respect, Suellen each torturer beyond the generic name of at each other, experiencing a renewed Diaconoff notices that: “In prison, the hajj. The process worked via particular sense of personal integrity and gender physical senses, like the body, are alien- traits: the walk, the force of the blows, the identity. On the other, the duration of their ated, distorted, deprived, and assaulted” tone of voice, the grip on their flesh. imprisonment is still indefinite, and their

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rights of political prisoners are far from endangering their own lives. As El Bouih body - can disrupt the dominant order of being recognized. affirms: “We had no choice but to practice the political sphere through the use of In Ghbiyla, El Bouih and Jbabdi occupy violence against ourselves. We had no self-directed violence” (160). the cell which was of the Marxist-Leninist choice but to consider death easier than Fatna’s account of hunger strike reports movement member Saida Menhebi. our current condition” (38). that the hardest days are precisely the ini- Former student union’s fellow and active Not being an inflicted form of pain but tial ones, which see a drastic change in the member of the clandestine group Ilā consisting of the self-infliction of suffering, inmates’ already poor food routine. The al-Amām (Forward), Saida worked as an hunger strike is an extreme choice by vul- hunger strike brings about headache, English teacher when she was arrested in nerable subjects in detention. In undergo- blurred vision, stomach cramps, heaviness 1977 and subjected to tortures. Following ing a hunger strike, mental strength is in the limbs. Soon, the women decide to a hunger strike that lasted 34 days, under- closely related to physical endurance, and drastically reduce to speak and move, gone to protest against the conditions of collective political convictions to physical staying for a long time in a state of semi- political prisoners, she was hospitalized resilience. immobility. Still, the temporary privation of and died at twenty-five.10 The news of her According to Machin, hunger strike entails voice and mobility is instrumental in gain- death profoundly shocks the inmates, and three major aspects. It is a strategy of ing a significant impact on the carceral El Bouih and Jbabdi’s group is soon trans- effectively communicating political intents, system, spreading a message of protest to ferred to Meknès to avoid contamination a tool to reproduce a collective identity, the entire makhzen, the Moroccan political from the so-called 45-day strike. and a way to disrupt the structure of the apparatus itself. Nevertheless, Fatna and her comrades carceral institution (160). The first aspect is As Banu Bargu highlights in her Starve decide to proclaim a hunger strike in related to the urgency of raising voice and and Immolate: The Politics of Human order to have their rights as political pris- being heard in prison. To the second Weapons the weaponization of life is a oners fully recognized. point, hunger strike is intended as a “tactic of resorting to corporeal and exis- That would mean for them to be able to shared dispositive that rehabilitates the tential practices of struggle, based on the read and study in a cell, to continue uni- sense of political belonging and restores technique of self-destruction, in order to versity and give exams, to enjoy more a common identity. A vision that is in con- make a political statement or advance hours of daylight in the courtyard and trast with the Foucauldian assumption that political goals” (14). Forms of self-destruc- more visits by family members. Also, the in prison pain is not just individualized but tion, such as hunger strike and self-immo- chance to have the right of medical care also individualizing (Foucault 239). Finally, lation in prison, relate to the nature of and, most importantly, to obtain a trial in collectively incorporating a typically sovereign power and prison politics in the after three years of arbitrary detention. For male fighting tool such as hunger strike, modern world themselves. According to these reasons, they utilize the only effec- women exercise a gender provocation. As Bargu, radical forms of struggle and mili- tive weapon of protest at their disposal, Machin argues: “The protesting body - in tant martyrdom specifically arise from the the refusal of food, even at the cost of particular, the female/feminine protesting asymmetric antagonism between the

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modern state and its contestants (23). of the effective recognition of the status of the development of a fervid imagination Showing a deep political awareness political detainees without a formal act. It as a strategy to endure pain and physical regarding the value of hunger strike in the will allow political prisoners to study and privations. During the hunger strike, water, abusive and coercive context of prison, to enjoy more hours of light a day, and to drunk and passed over wrists and face, is Fatna El Bouih argues: “The hunger strike receive a judgment in a courtroom. The the only form of physical relief to her. In shakes the foundations of a State that hunger strike is over, and it has produced addition, her thoughts dive into watery claims to be grounded on the rule of law, a significant impact in the carceral envi- scenarios as Fatna projects herself into the a State that affirms to recognize human ronment. waves of the sea and her sight looking at life as sacred” (38). This affirmation is also a river (El Bouih 43). Indeed, imagination consistent with Padraic Kenney‘s point Corporeal Memory plays a significant role for Fatna since the that the modern prisoner of conscience, In her study on the suffering body through aquatic imaginary contributes to keep with his or her reluctance to submit to the history entitled The Body in Pain, Elaine alive also her mind. rules of the prison, is aimed at sparking Scarry affirms the inexpressibility of physi- Moving away from a certain monolithic off a crisis on the modern state and its cal pain, arguing that the inflicted pain vision of the suffering subject as mute and coercive apparatus. deriving from torture experiences is for its impotent, Stephen Milich and Lamia As the days of hunger strike go on, Fatna very nature unspeakable. According to the Moghnieh state that the concept of un- manages to maintain a strenuous strength American scholar, pain nullifies the per- narratability of a traumatic experience has of mind in the solid conviction to either sonal subjectivity and annihilates the given way to a more complex and contex- overcome or to die. After twenty days of capacity of individual agency (161-180). To tual apparatus of readings (9). Likewise, hunger strike, the carceral authorities Scarry, pain is a “supreme extra-linguistic Lisa Silverman encourages a reconceptu- break the silence. Representing all the event” (Fifield 119) which also isolates the alization of the connection between pain other strikers, El Bouih is called to directly individual from the others, preventing and truth, body, and language (22). negotiate the terms of their final recogni- people any valid form of communication. In this perspective, it is possible to argue tion as political prisoners. The negotiating Distancing herself from this position, his- that Ḥadīth al-‘Atama draws a trajectory table is a symbolic and factual place of torian Lisa Silverman argues that the from physical violence to an effective com- reconfiguration of female subalternity author does not consider the forms of self- munication in and from the prison, towards male carceral authorities. Fatna, inflicted pain, stating that: “For Scarry, the describing a transformation of the suffer- disfigured by the prolonged food depriva- pain has a primary meaning, and that ing body into a voice, and of voice into tion and at the very limit of her physical meaning is the negation of the essence of memory source. Still, the process is not strength, deftly confronts the prison direc- humanity in its suppression of imagina- entirely linear and direct. Despite the high tor, demonstrating an extreme mental tion” (21). Drawing on Silverman’s perspec- level of historical consciousness and polit- endurance and exemplary political con- tive, it is possible to comment on Fatna El ical commitment, Fatna El Bouih’s and duct. The compromise obtained consists Bouih’s case of hunger strike, which entails Latifa Jbabdi’s literary accounts are not

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exempt from space-time leaps, selective from prison, El Bouih likely had access to profound transgression of the status quo. memory and removal mechanisms typical her recollections through a re-actualiza- As long as the remembering process of the traumatized recollection. For tion of physical pain and sensory depriva- poses, in the first place, a personal, inti- instance, as Fatna El Bouih omits to speak tion, as suggested by Diaconoff: “It is rea- mate challenge. about information told under torture, sonable that when a writer endeavours to Latifa Jbabdi underlines her strenuous re-access the mental/emotional texture of Conclusion resistance in not pronouncing anything her prison experience through memory, Drawing conclusions, this article has dis- under torture. Or, while Jbabdi overlooks her attention will be strongly focused on cussed the topics of body and physical the hunger strike event, El Bouih puts her physical body and the senses, and reactions to carceral coercion as shaped great emphasis on her account about that how they were both assaulted and by the collective memoir Ḥadīth al-‘Atama, experience. Occasionally, in Ḥadīth al- reshaped” (122). Still, the defence mecha- that sheds light on the Moroccan state vio- ‘Atama, mostly narrated in the first person, nisms of the wounded memory in remem- lence against female members of the there is a narrative shift towards the exter- bering the past violence must be consid- Marxist-Leninist Movement (MMLM) dur- nal focus of the third-person narrative, ered. The bodily consciousness which ing the seventies and eighties. It has anal- establishing a “floating pronoun perspec- emerges from Latifa Jbabdi’s and Fatna El ysed the bodily transformation in prison, tive” to Suellen Diaconoff’s reading (118). Bouih’s traumatic experiences marks a from gendered violence to a corporeal This mode works as an expedient which type of memory which challenges the nat- weaponization, also commenting on the allows El Bouih to distance herself as the ural rejection, refusal, and obliteration of memory implications of the process. protagonist of her memories. Realistically, physical pain. The memorial voice and the Fatna El Bouih’s and Latifa Jbabdi’s mem- to diminish the effect of past tribulations ensuing restoration of the truth about the ory accounts illustrate the systematic prac- on her. brutalities experienced arise precisely tices of violence inflicted on female dissi- On the other hand, the passage to the civil from the effort to overcome psychological dents. The repressive paradigm implies a prison, which means the possibility to barriers and removal necessities. In that doubled kind of suffering inflicted on study, meet relatives and have more hours vein, the act of memorial activism, fully women, as they undergo strategies of in the daylight, marks Fatna’s decision to ascribable to El Bouih’s and Jbabdi’s gender erosion and conformity to the note down memories of her carceral expe- memoirs, entails a personal struggle in the male sphere combined with the most typ- rience during her imprisonment. Fatna El political conviction of the necessity to tes- ical forms of sexual violence. Bouih starts to produce her prison account timony against oblivion and censorship. If, Although being arbitrary deprived of free- as an inmate, to prevent the facts, also the as Naima Hachad claims, “agony can be a dom and forced in inhumane prison con- cruellest ones endured in jail, to be oblit- revolt” (“Monstrous Offspring” 128) - and ditions in a state of complete blindness erated by the passing of time and the psy- the Meknès group’s hunger strike would and immobility, the violated female bod- chological rejection of painful memories. confirm it - spreading the suffering ies are field of passive resilience and In completing her memoirs once released through memories represents a form of active resistance against the carceral

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Martina Biondi repression. Thereby, Fatna’s group uses Finally, in exploring the mutual relation- imagination and creativity, staging com- ship between corporeality and pain, mem- is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department munication sessions. They utilise their ory and language, the suffering body has of Political Science, University of Perugia bodies as books, tracing letters’ outlines to been defined as themedium of memorial (Italy) - historical and linguistic area. Her form sentences in order to convey sense, recollecting. Pain frames events, and the Ph.D. project is about female activism contrast their alienation, and reinforcing memory of these events is impressed in in Morocco during the Years of Lead their collective sisterhood. the body. Still, the process of remember- (1965-1999) and women’s collective Subsequently, to achieve the substantial ing stemming from the wounded bodies memory in the post-transitional period status of political prisoners which would is not exempted from mechanisms of self- (since 1999). She studied Languages guarantee an improvement of their prison protection, distancing, and removals. In and Cultures (Arabic, English and conditions, they decide to impress an Ḥadīth al-‘Atama the painful access to the French) at Universities of Macerata and utter wound on their already fragile bod- past wounds, which is the basis of the idea Manchester. She also holds a degree ies. In this sense, it has been observed and of corporeal memory this article conveys, in Anthropology from University of described an overarching trajectory pro- is fulfilled by El Bouih and Jbabdi thanks Bologna. Since 2017 she has discussed ceeding from an inflicted pain (torture and to their strenuous political commitment her works at academic conferences gender violence) to an agentic self- and their willing to make their stories pub- while her first publication dates to 2018. inflicted pain (hunger strike). licly known. As their personal accounts Her interests include contemporary If the inflicted pain and the objectification testifies, making their voices heard in the history of North Africa and gender of political prisoners are “insignia of public space becomes de facto a political issues within the MENA region. power” (Scarry 51), the self-inflicted pain matter. It concerns the issue of the public email: [email protected] can be seen, according to Banu Bargu’s restoration of historical truth about the perspective, as the ultimate pro-active massive suspension of human rights dur- path of re-appropriation of dignity within ing Years of Lead and, lastly, the possibility the carceral framework for women. In of rising a gendered memory in Morocco. undergoing the hunger strike, El Bouih’s and her comrades’ political sisterhood produces an agentive gesture and a gen- der resistance giving rise to a real improve- ment in their conditions as political prison- ers. Therefore, Ḥadīth al-‘Atama shows the plasticity of pain and its contagious and manipulative nature.

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Notes 2 Among the former political 3 See for example: 6 In comparing Fatna El 10 A year after her death, prisoners who published Tazmamart. Une prison Bouih’s and former Marxist- in 1978, Saida Menebhi’s 1 On the commission their prison narratives in de la mort au Maroc by Leninist prisoner Nour- Poèmes, Lettres, Écrits de IER (Instance Equité et Arabic: Abdalqadir al-Shawi Christine Daure-Serfaty, La eddine Saoudi’s memory prison were published in Réconciliation), established (Kāna wa-Akhawātihā, Kana prisonnière by Malika Oufkir accounts, Laura Menin Rabat. This poetry collection in 2004 in a transitional and her Sisters; Al-Sāhat and Tazmamart côté femme: (“Rewriting the World” 58) represents her legacy as a justice framework in order to al-Sharafiya, Honorary Témoignage by Rabea notices how women were human and militant. From create reparative paths both Square), Saʿid Haji (Dhākiratu Bennouna. In wider terms, subjected to masculinization the prison’s deprivations, individual and communal, al-Finiq: Sīratun Dhātiyatun Arabic prison memoirs by and, likewise, men were her look embraces the see: Vermeren, Le Maroc li-Wajhin min Sanawāt al- Egyptian feminists Nawal feminized and addressed entire suffering humanity, en transition, Slyomovics, Raṣāṣ, Memories of Phoenix: El Saadawi (Mudhakkirātī with homophobic insults. strengthening the “Reparations in Morocco”, a Biography of a Man from fī Sijn al-Nisā’, Memoirs ecumenism of the global 7 Loudiy; Hegasy; Menin “A Life the Years of Lead), Salah from a Women‘s Prison) Translations from Arabic are struggle against injustices of Waiting”. Criticism of the Ouadie (al-‘Aris, The Groom). and Latifa Al-Zayyat (Ḥamlat all mine. around the world. For a effectiveness of Moroccan In general, more numerous Taftīsh: ‘awrāq Shakhṣiyya, comparative reading of 8 community reparations and are the autobiographical Inspection. A Private Diary) In disregard of religion, El Bouih’s and Menebhi’s the real political will of the accounts on the Years of had a greater diffusion in tortures were also inflicted literary production, see regime to resolve all the Lead in French. See for the MENA region. For a during the holy month of Valerie Orlando (“Feminine cases of disappearances instance: Dans les Jardins comparative perspective Ramadan. Spaces and Places in the have also been expressed Secrets du Roi du Maroc by on female prison memoirs Dark Recesses of Morocco’s 9 (see for example: Vairel; Ali Bourequat, Tazmamart. from Egypt to Palestine, from The word falaqa indicates Past: the Prison Testimonials Menin, “Descending Into Une prison de la mort au South Africa to El Salvador the wooden stick to which in Poetry and Prose of Saïda Hell” and “Scomparsi Maroc by Christine Daure- and United States, see the victim’s feet are tied Menebhi and Fatna El (mukhtafyin)”; Hachad, Serfaty, La chambre noire Barbara Harlow’s Barred: and raised to expose them Bouih”). “Narrating Tazmamart”). ou Derb Moulay Chérif by Women, Writing, and Political to the blows better. This Besides, while Dennerlein Jaouad Mdidech, Tazmamart Detention. torture is known in Europe ––› points out the attempt by the Cellule 10 by Ahmed as bastinado, from Spanish 4 commission to comply with Merkouzi, Le chemin des Mustafa Kamala and Susan bastón, stick. international standards on ordalies by Abdellatif Laabi, Slyomovics translated the women’s rights in transitional A l’ombre de Lalla Chafia and text into English as Talk of justice (10), El Guabli has La tyrannie ordinaire: lettres Darkness. argued that the IER failed in de prison by Driss Rekab. 5 specifically focusing on state Bouab’s and Jbabdi’s violence against women, testimonials were first contributing to conversely published in 1994 in the producing an “unaware- Moroccan newspaper al- gender history” of the Years Ittiḥād al-Ishtiraki (Slyomovics, of Lead (“Gender-Unaware “Reparations in Morocco” History” 59). 144).

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