Samia Errazzouki : I was in Morocco when Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire and many in Morocco, at the time, were anticipating what would follow suit. Not too long after Bouazizi’s self-immolation, on 21 February 2011, Fadoua Laroui, a single mother whose application for public housing was rejected, set herself on fire in front of a municipal office. Her self-immolation took place in the context of a broader call for mobilization in Morocco under the auspices of the 20 February Movement. A little after a year had passed, in March 2012, Amina Filali, a young girl who was forced into a marriage with her rapist, died after she swallowed rat poison. Within a period of just over a year, the suicides of two disenfranchised women in Morocco triggered nationwide outrage, international media coverage, and debates in parliament. However, existing literature that situated their public suicides was constrained within a neotraditionalist discourse that failed to move beyond cultural or religious explanations for their circumstances. For example, some of these explanations blamed “Arab” and “Muslim” patriarchal culture as the sole reason for why these women were driven to suicide. Other reactions focused simply on the “sinful” act of committing suicide, while failing to recognize the disenfranchisement that drove them to end their lives in such a public manner. I wrote this article in an attempt to situate the circumstances of these disenfranchised working-class women within a broader political economic framework that considers factors such as the implementation of neoliberal economic policies and the entrenchment of a patriarchal authoritarian regime.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Jan 2014 17:05:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015