Essayists From Morocco

"Mothers should tell little girls and boys about the importance of dreams,' Aunt Habiba said. 'They give a sense direction. It is not enough to reject this courtyard--you need to have a vision of the meadows with which you want to replace it.' But how, I asked Aunt Habiba, could you distinguish among all the wishes, all the cravings which besieged you, and find the one on which you ought to focus, the important dream that gave you vision? She said that little children had to be patient, the key dream would emerge and bloom within, and then, from the intense pleasure it gave you, you would know that that it was the genuine little treasure which would give you direction and light."

"But it was the radio incident that taught me an important lesson. It was then that Mother told me about the need to chew my words before letting them out. ‘Turn each word around your tongue seven times, with your lips tightly shut, before uttering a sentence,’ she said. ‘Because once your words are out, you might lose a lot.’”"

"To make babies, the bride and groom had to dress up nicely, put flowers in their hair and lie down together on a very big bed. The next thing you knew, many mornings later, there was a little baby crawling between them""

"Sometimes, she said that to be stuck in a harem simply meant that a woman had lost her freedom of movement. Other times, she said that a harem meant misfortune because a woman had to share her husband with many others""

"The French do not imprison their wives behind walls, my dear mother-in-law,' she would say. 'They let them run wild in the local souk (market), and everyone had fun, and sill the work gets done'""

"But when your situation is hopeless, all you can do is turn the world upside down, transform it according to your wishes, and create anew."

"There are many ways to be beautiful. Fighting, swearing, and ignoring tradition could make a women irresistible."

"She would take him to faraway lands to observe foreign ways, so he could get closer to the strangeness within himself."

"I asked Mina how would I know on which side I stood. Her answer was quick, short, and very clear - If you can't get out, you are on the powerless side."

"But since then, looking for the frontier has become my life’s occupation. Anxiety eats at me whenever I cannot situate the geometric line organizing my powerlessness.”"

"Pessimism is the luxury of the powerful."

"Being frozen into the passive position of an object whose very existence depends on the eye of its beholder turn the educated modern Western women into a harem slave."

"Beauty is in the skin!"

"Happiness was when there was a balance between what you gave and what you took"