A Deeper Meaning to It All

Morocco’s ceremonial arts of music and dance incorporate numerous artistic traditions to celebrate life and death and are some of the best times to see them displayed.  Morocco stands as one of the very few surviving examples of ancient world civilizations, unchanged for centuries. However, modernization has not completely over looked Morocco, and is now rapidly proceeding. The traditional arts and antique pieces are vanishing in reaction to changes in social structure, craft specialization, and the tourist market demand. However, Morocco has not evolved as quickly as other more southern African states, keeping many of their traditions intact. Festivals provide an ideal opportunity to witness firsthand accounts of the richness of Morocco’s artistic traditions and heritage. This in large part is because of the spiritual and ceremonial context the arts are applied to during ceremony which expresses not only the importance of arts in culture, but spirituality in the arts.

The traditions of art and craft are displayed in their most vibrant, personal, religious and communal activities during festivals, which are meant to have both religious and economic in their intent (Jereb 1996). Men and women wear their most colourful, decorative, and elaborate clothing to display the wealth of their family; men play music and sing songs dedicated to their god; both sexes dance to a rhythm that puts them into a trance; and special markets open selling everything from “camels to jewelry” (Jereb 1996, 137). Moroccan people will dedicate the celebrations to their gods, which they have many of, throughout the year – some individually or as a group. Saints play a major role during the development and practice of artistic traditions, each one having their own patron saint (Jereb 1996). For example, Berber women who spin and weave textiles consider it to be very important to acknowledge and give homage to the local saint to receive help with the work of weaving materials. Offerings women may make to their saints and gods of their craft come in the form of distaff of wool, or other similar tributes regarding the creation of craft. In exchange, the women may take away some dirt from the shine they pray at and work it into the rug or fabric they are creating as a way to implement good fortune and positive spiritual energy into what they are creating.

How they do this is through the use of prayer and careful consideration for the creation of the textiles. Their prayer, “spin, spin, my little distaff, God and his envoy watch over thee” ensures the quality of the wool and the protecting from evil spirits which might work their way into the textile and bring bad luck on the weaving (Jereb 1996, 138). It is, in a way, their duty to ensure the spiritual quality of the textile throughout the entire process of the textile creation. This includes the spinning of the wool, dyeing of the yarn, and weaving of the rugs. By carefully protecting the material from bad spirits, djoun, the weaver creates a material that is a protective shield from both the physical and spiritual world for the owner of the textile. The spiritual significance of the craft goes beyond just the material that goes into the textile, but everything which comes into contact with it. As the story goes, the tools and loom used for weaving were gifts from Allah to Fatima, the goddess of femininity and the mythic ancestor of women (Jereb 1996). Beyond the authenticity of the story, the existence of the tale for where tools for creating textiles came from signifies the importance the objects are.

Because we are talking about ceremony, I should mention performance and music in regards to how spirituality is so important in all forms of creation. Women find other ways of becoming closer and better acquainted with their gods other than through prayer and paying tribute. They will create music, often on the drum and other percussion instruments such as shakers. Men are traditionally the players of more complex musical instruments such as oboes (ghaita), flutes and fiddles (Jereb 1996). However women find ways of making their own music in order to hold their own spiritual celebrations and rituals that are exclusively meant for women. The most important musical instrument for the Berbers is the human body (Jereb 1996). The activity of clapping, chanting, singing, and stomping of feet is central to their music, accompanied by very view musical instruments. The instruments they do use consist of drums like the guedra, bendir, deff, tbal and long necked lute the gimbrid are very characteristic of southern Morocco (Jereb 1996). A very popular dance performed by women is the guedra, named because of the guedra drum used in the dance. A veiled woman will stand on her knees in the middle of a circle of women. She will begin by creating sensual movements with her arms, hands and fingers, moving until the dance consumes her entire body, gradually unveiling herself¸ eventually falling into a trance that in some cases has her collapse to the ground. The practice of the guerdra, and other trance inducing dances, are meant to bring the women closer to the spiritual world.  Acting as a gate way into the spiritual world, performance through music and dance brings the women closer to their gods, saints, and ancestors, building a connection between the real world and the spiritual world.

This connection, this interwoven bond between the spiritual world and real world are as tightly entwined as the threads that create the beautiful textiles so characteristic of Morocco. Spirituality is an incredibly integral part of creativity to Moroccan people; the two could never be separated. This to me is what makes Moroccan art and craft so much more powerful than other forms of creativity, because there is so much more depth to it comparatively to Western decorative house wares. Even if the purpose of the craft is utilitarian, so much more goes into the making of the piece that it becomes something more than an object to be dressed in or walk upon. It is a spiritual connection of the weaver and every other weaver before her, laying out a history as long as the stories from which the loom came from.

The Duality in a Cross-stitch

Moroccan Caftan BABY BLUE
Sheer Chiffon Fancy Gold Embroidery
Available on Etsy.com

There are many regional styles of textile weaving and embroidery patterns, and it is almost exclusively done by women. What is often over looked however the duality between man and woman is during the making of the textiles. The relationship between the men and the women working together to provide each other with social status, material subsistence and opportunity for economic and creative development plays out in many ways in Moroccan society, and few more direct than in the production of textiles. The necessary skills, knowledge, and creativity necessary for weaving will ensure the future success to the artisan personally, as well as to the entire community at large

Textiles allow women a certain degree of freedom for expression, despite conservative design traditions (Jereb 1996, 44). In the modern relationship between tattoo and textile, a weaver may incorporate a tattoo into a textile design which corresponds to a particular part of her body. The Berbers say that “no two rugs are ever alike” as the weaving of rugs and textiles are an opportunity for women to fully express their creativity - “a freedom entrenched in the most ancient traditions” (Jereb 1996, 44). The vocabulary of an accomplished weaver must be extensive, including intricate geometric shapes, natural symbols like flora, and natural representations of animals (Jereb 1996, 45). However, it is the tattoo that makes the textile personal, unique and complete. An example of this is in the placement of the symbol. The placement of the tattoo symbol in the rug may even correspond to the placement of the tattoo on the woman`s body (Jereb 1996, 47). By imprinting a personal motif into a textile, in a position corresponding to the body, the weaver, or embroiderer, has visually and spiritually extended herself beyond her own body into this material that is meant to act as a protective shield from the world. Therefore, in a metaphorical sense, the artisan has made it so that the owner of the rug will be protected by the artist herself, building a bond between rug owner and creator.

In urban areas, the specialization of weaving is centered in weavers who weaver for a profession, travelling from town to town, unrestrained by the social and residential limits women experience in rural areas (Jereb 1996, 47). Despite these restrictions in rural areas, the women find ways of making weaving an enjoyable activity. In the rural areas, women gather particularly for the purpose of weaving. They will sing and chant of times of romance and plenty, telling stories of superstition and magic, working diligently (Jereb 1996, 48). These women will weave the tent clothes, the furnishing for the home, all the decorative materials, assisted by their daughters and young girls of the band who are in the process of learning the craft (Jereb 1996, 48). The necessity of knowing the skill is one which ensures a girl’s prospects in the future. It is an age old tradition, passed down from one generation to the next, traditionally learned from older female relatives (Jereb 1996, 48). The collective knowledge and skill of the weavers provides resources for future generations to make the best textile creations they can imagine.

The competency of the weaver secures her position not only in a social context in the tribe, but ensures her future. The respect and prestige a woman commands in a community is often determined by her skill and creativity in her weaving and embroidery capabilities, ensuring a high bride price (Jereb 1996, 48). This plays out in a similar farther for embroidery. Embroidered curtains, intricately decorated with floral motifs, “hung as decoration on ceremonial occasion, they were the most important items officially listed in a woman’s dowry” (Jereb 1996, 56). Without the necessary knowledge, vocabulary, and skills needed to produce elaborate textiles, the family could experience shame, and potentially an unmarried daughter.

In contrast to this, if the husband cannot look after the raw materials needed for textile production, the son’s family may not be able to marry him off either. The men are the ones who guard and sheer the sheep needed to make yarn and wool (Jereb 1996, 48). It depends on the social group which determines which gender does the washing, spinning, dyeing and drying of the yarn, however it is usually the women who do it in most Moroccan social groups (Jereb 1996, 48). It is very important for the men and women to be proficient at what they do, whether it be preparing the materials or making the textiles. Without the duality of the sexes working together a home would not be furnished, the family would not clothed, and the social value of the family would heavily degrade because their visual presentation was not up to pare.

             When it comes to embroidery, the relationship between men and women is a little more equal comparatively to that of weaving. Embroidery is a primary form of textile production, present in the urban and rural dwelling landscape, with varying artistic vocabularies, styles, techniques and materials from city to city (Jereb 1996, 53). Imported by Jewish, Berber and Arab immigrants, some embroiderers specialize in silk, cotton, cotton on linen, rayon, nylon, and gold (Jereb 1996, 52). Men will work almost exclusively to make, stitch and embroider leather bags, whereas the women stick to softer materials (Jereb 1996, 48). Much of embroidery is still predominated by women though. The skills needed for embroidery begin at a young age, with apprentices practicing on their own clothes and house hold linens (Jereb 1996, 53). The work takes hours of practice, over seen some times by a ma’allema (head embroiderer) for guidance as the youth develop their skills, passed down through the female line (Jereb 1996, 53). Despite the seemingly split between the men and women of the textile world, the relationship between the two is inseparable to achieve the degree of complexity the textiles of Morocco are known for.

The bond between the weaver and their craft is one which is incredibly important to develop, for how well they develop their art will determine their success as a member of their community and family. Despite the predominantly female presence in textile production, the success of the trade and the place it holds in Moroccan social life has a dependence on both men and women working together. The dual bond between the two sexes ensures the success of the textile production with both genders having assigned roles regarding who supplies the materials and skills necessary to make the woven and embroidered fabrics that Morocco is so famous for. 

Weaving Bonds for Security

          Textiles which originate from Morocco are some of the most dazzling and Impressive of Africa due to the vibrant colours, many textures, the rhythmic variations in design patterns, and the power which comes with them. Originally meant for almost purely utilitarian purposes, as furnishing for the family house or tent, and personal clothing, the art of textile weaving has grown in such a fashion that it is now considered to be the most distinct of the Islamic and African textiles (Jereb 1996, 43-44). The elaborate nature of the textiles acts as an indicator of social status, lineage, wealth, and the religious background of the weaver (Jereb 1996, 44). They are a story of the weaver, tell the life of her tribe, displayed on her clothing and walls of her house, by the symbols of power history, and position which developed over long periods of time. The creation and display of textiles is an incredibly symbolic activity, surrounded in spiritual and personal power.

The materials needed for textile making considered incredibly valuable, and by extension so is the process. Since ancient times, Moroccan tribal weavers have prepared their own dyes from materials they gather themselves, such as local vegetable and mineral sources (Jereb 1996, 48). Dyes include red from madder root, black from pomegranate skins, saffron or almond leaves make yellow, indigo produces greens and blues, and tea and henna makes redy-brown earth tones (Jereb 1996, 47). The yarn itself is usually sheep`s wool, predominant in Moroccan textile weaving, however small amount of goats hair, silk, cotton and rayon are added (Jereb 1996, 52). The wool and cotton are most often used for the weaving, while the super fine silk and rayon are used for brocading and embroidering (Jereb 1996, 52). During the meditative process of yarn and fabric making/dyeing, the women keep a constant and regular awareness of the spiritual world to ensure the spiritual purity of the material is free from evil (Jereb 1996, 45). This is especially true during the weaving process as that is the time when, once the yarn is ready and considered lucky, evil can be woven between the threads of the textiles (Jereb 1996, 45). If the women maintain this state, they can be assured that the materials for textile making will be of the finest material and spiritual quality.

This is a hand forged iron and wood rug weaving
tool that can be found on Etsy.com for sale 

The tools of the weaver are as significant as the materials. “The loom itself remains the ultimate symbol of magical protection: it is looked upon as a living thing and treated as such, and it is thought to possess baraka.” Their hooks and utensils needed for weaving, which are made out of wood, will have talismans carved into them to protect the textile and the weaver from evil (Jereb 1996, 45). If the weaver has paid careful attention to the number and combination of threads necessary to produce a design, the finished product will not only be beautiful but be a spiritual net or shield to protect the owners/wearers from misfortune, specifically the evil eye and djoun (Jereb 1996, 45). The power of the loom, talismans of the tools, and mind set of the weaver will permeate the fabric, making the very fibre of the rub, shawl, blanket, or tunic radiate positive energy.

All symbols carry baraka, a Berber word referring to beneficial psychic power, which are intertwined with the old traditional customs, rituals and beliefs of their culture (Jereb 1996, 45). The use of crosses, linear sequences and the eight-pointed Berber star throughout Morocco are, “used as textile motifs, tattoos and crosses are believed to have the power first to draw and then disperse or dissipate evil in the six directions of the Berber universe – north, south, east, west, above and below” (Jereb 1996, 47). This is similar in the application of embroidery, where many motifs and designs were originally derived from both henna designs and indigo tattooing (Jereb 1996, 54). The styles of embroidery and weaving have undergone similar, if not the same, changes one would expect in the artistic vocabulary with relation to patterns, styles and colours (Jereb 1996, 54). Historically certain patterns incorporated motifs and designs into the embroidery and weavings as ways of preserving the motifs and designs forbidden by the Arabs (Jereb 1996, 54). This is an additional layer of spiritual energy which the weaver will incorporate into her work. The combination of spiritually pure materials, tools, and talismanic designs act as a shield for bad luck and evil.

The symbolic power and prestige of textile production in the Moroccan, and particularly Berber, social world is rich in not only iconographic material, but in spiritual energy as well. The position women hold in society is higher than I had personally originally thought because of the importance their knowledge and skills of textile production has in protecting the people who use their fabrics. If it was not for the women, who pass down the knowledge and skills of textile weaving to their daughters, evil and bad luck would follow the Moroccan and Berber tribes. Therefore, to a certain extent, the women are the ones keeping the people safe.

Proprietors of Berber Identity

      The Berbers, being the founders and distributors of Moroccan textile weaving, are considered to be the most ornate and accomplished textile weavers. It embodies everything they are, both visually and socially. The women are the ones who display the creative art work on their bodies like living art works, and in their homes - a place for relaxation and comfort not utilitarian activity like the working world, which is almost exclusively reserved for me. They drape themselves in embroidered shawls, cover their floors with intricate carpets, cover their faces with tattoos and their hands with henna, and dance the nights away with each other in beautiful and glittering belly dance costumes. In Berber culture, it is the women who carry their ethnic identity by up keeping these practices and displaying the art work in their world and on their body, making the female body a public symbol for Berber identity.

        “Ethnic identity” in the way I am using it in this context, means group membership, which is often traced through the male line, and the symbols displayed on the women’s bodies link those women to their fertility lines. “Since ethnic identity is a process that is subject to historical, political, and social dynamics….women’s arts have been transformed from localized ethnic symbols that represent a transnational Berber identity” (Becker 2006, 2). The identity of Berber culture is at a small level of risk at the moment, something the women are ensuring does not fall apart, and by extension allowing them access to pick and choose what creative liberties they take with the crafts.

        In modern Morocco, the Berber men have been leaving the rural country side which the semi-nomadic Berber people typically inhabit. They leave in the hopes that, like many before them, by setting off for the city they may be able to find employment to bring money to their home (Hoffman January 29, 2008). The women are left at home, to tend to the house and the children, and during that time they continue to practice the art of weaving and embroidery (Hoffman January 29, 2008). The culture of the art lives on in the women. As the men move to modernity and adapt the imported Western culture that is taking over so much of the world, the women in rural Morocco stay true to their cultural identity and continue the art they have practiced for so many centuries.

        Textile weaving and embroidery are one of the most ancient forms of artistic expression in Moroccan culture. It “is the greatest artistic tradition,” what with so many artisans practicing the art (Jereb 1996, 41). The Berbers were the ones who introduced the art to Morocco back in the 16^th century when they first arrived in North Africa, bringing a primitive form of weaving with them which was “both utilitarian and magical or religious….” (Jereb 1996, 41). Throughout the centuries, the textiles would be traded with merchant ships from Black North Africa, Arab and European countries in exchange for goods, spreading the skills and knowledge needed for cloth making (Jereb 1996, 41).Every stitch, line of thread and weave of a loom become a living history of the people who made the elaborate textiles we see today.

        Carrying the burden ethnic identity can be very tiring for women; however it provides them with a certain level of control upon their own social culture. “…women’s control over the visual symbols of Berber ethnic identity grants them power and prestige yet also restricts them to specific roles in the society” (Becker 2006, 1). By extension, the women influence the outside world by publicly displaying their crafts, clothing, rugs, shawls, and other wares. “They play an important role in their communities by providing commodities such as tents, clothing, rugs, sacks, and ceramic pots, in addition to acting as healers, marriage brokers, midwives, cooks, agriculturalists, and pastoralists” (Becker 2006, 5). The many crafts and utilitarian activities which the women do solidify their status as proprietors of symbolic public identity. Women, as members of Berber society, embody the architect of nomadic societies, with their arts being the gendered symbols of womanhood, ethnic identity, and female creativity. 

Works Cited

                Becker, Cynthia J. Amazigh Arts in Morocco: Women Shaping Berber Identity. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.

                Hoffman, Katherine E. We Share Walls. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, January 29, 2008.

                Jereb, James F. Arts & Crafts of Morocco. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996.

Creative Morocco

      Sitting at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, only a hop-skip-and-a-jump from Europe to the north and to the east and south several African and Arab-Muslim countries, Morocco has been influenced by a fair few cultural invasions. From all of these cultures comingling, importing their own artistic styles and cultural traditions, Morocco’s creative identity is a collection of all these symbols, motifs, styles, colours, shapes, and textures, which has over time developed its own regional styles. The most prominent being the divide between the urban and rural regions (Jereb 1996, 11). The one unifying theme throughout all the styles is the Arab-Muslim culture, reminiscent of the Islamization, who made large contributions to the fully developed geometric patterning and styles that are so characteristic of modern Morocco. From there, Moroccans have grown in their own artistic styles and build a creative cultural identity all their own that is both them and everyone else who has contributed.

A seemingly simple geometric design, this Berber rug has a deeper meaning
of being watchful, or being watched.

 A prominent cultural group in Morocco that have a distinct artistic style, and is considered to be quite independently distinct in Moroccan, are the Berber people. The Berber people are a semi-nomadic group come from the north of Africa, live mostly in the rural country side, and are well known for their crafts and geometric artistry (Jereb 1996, 41). What makes them so well-known are through their interaction with the Phoenicians, the Berbers specialized their skills and techniques in weaving and dyeing, widening the range of artistic symbols and designs which are incorporated into their already well-established artistic vocabulary (Jereb 1996, 41). Because of their highly specialized and particular style in Moroccan artistry, the Berbers’ crafts stand out in Moroccan culture and as a cultural group whom I will be focusing my research around.

      The vocabulary of the Berber and Moroccan motifs carry deep meanings, in spiritual, social, and powerful ways. The iconographic and symbolic patterns in Berber textiles predate Islam (Jereb 1996, 14). The Berber people have adopted some of the Islamic and Arabic spiritual costumes into their own culture; however they mostly stick to their own décor in order to keep the powerful meaning and messages of their culture true to their intended meaning. They take great care with their work, treating every activity as a purposeful action. “Women of both nomadic and semi-nomadic Berber tribes prepared the fires used in the weaving of shawls, blankets, rugs, tent bands, sacks, pillows and grass mats – items which they still produce today” (Jereb 1996, 41). The craft of textile is considered a meditative practice, one which contains the collective “legacy of the popular, collective and sacred artistic traditions in Berber history…” (Jereb 1996, 41). The importance of the quality of worker in the process of the making of the textiles is as important, if not more important, than the quality of the end result.

Berber Evil Eye

When it comes to symbols and motifs in textiles, embroidery and fabrics, the animalistic values of Islam play out. Referencing historic images in the Koran, the restricted human an animal images appear in both realistic and stylized forms which are incorporated into floral and geometric patterns (Jereb 1996, 18-19). These can be abstracted to the most basic forms, such as the Berber evil eye. Symbols and motifs like this one carry power which can be used for a whole host of activities. Such as healing, protection, and bringing good fortune; they act as a talisman (Jereb 1996, 20). In the case of the evil eye, it can be incorporated into any medium, such as jewelry, henna, tattoos, textiles, wood work, leather work, ad embroidery. “The people generally considered most susceptible to the evil eye are brides, pregnant women and babies, who are likely to wear a variety of pendants cut in this shape” (Jereb 1996, 21). By placing power into the objects, through meditative and spoken word practices, the symbols and objects are given a life that help to either bring good or bad fortune to those possessing them.

There is an additional religious element present in the making of these crafts, where the objects hold the words said by the makers as a piece of history. Much like in the making of the Koran, which requires the writer to say the words of the Koran as he is writing them to ensure the power of the words are embedded into the ink and paper, the words of spiritual power are put into the crafts themselves (Jereb 1996, 42). The textiles and objects become a piece of the greater spiritual identity of the person who made it, the region it comes from, and the people who see stories see the stories play out in every stitch of the textile fibers. 

Work Cited

Jereb, James F. Arts & Crafts of Morocco. San Fransico: Chronicle Books, 1996.

The Women`s World

Much like the practice of belly dancing, henna is considered to be women’s art and activity, shrouded in mystery behind closed doors in the world of women – inside the home. The theme of women and their relationships with each other, and with men, regarding their crafts and how they use them engulfs much of the women’s behaviour. Much of their lives are dependent on the men, predominantly the head male of the house hold. This extends into the outside world, beyond the home, which is considered the man’s world. “Patriarchal hegemony does not exclude the existence of sectors or tactics that permit greater or lesser freedom, nor do all women experience it in the same way,” (Kelly-Spurles n.d., 13).  This pillar of social structure is being challenged however due to a new market of income opening with the influx of tourists into Morocco, particularly with relation to tourist sector henna. Women have begun to extend themselves beyond their place indoors, into the outside world, which is causing some shifts in the social power of gender within Morocco.

“…the presentation of culture ‘is a communicative medium to shape reality, to construct it in order to achieve specific ends’ (Peteet 1993:52).” (Kelly-Spurles n.d., 47).

Henna on the street

In Morocco, much like everywhere, spaces contain meaning regarding how they are used, who has access to them, the rituals performed in them, the economic and social contexts that are embedded in them, and how all of these connects to other’s lives. “The house and the street are not just places however, but metaphors or reference points that orient Moroccan women’s self-presentation through speech and action,” (Kelly-Spurles n.d., 46). The repetition of these actions in these places will reinforce these metaphors, such as what is said between people, the mannerisms necessary to communicate depending on location, and other symbols like dress. This has been carefully and strategically orchestrated in Moroccan culture, so that a woman may not be able to exist outside of these constructs without risking her reputation. For instance, for a woman to be on the street too much without reason would call into question her actions. Occasionally, when ends cannot be met and more money is needed to feed the family, women will resort to prostitution, a transaction that typically happens on the street, and ruins reputations (Kelly-Spurles n.d., 65). If a woman is spending too much time on the street, people would assume something like prostitution, ruining a woman’s future prospects in a whole host of areas.

In the past several decades, tourism has been increasing in Morroco, and with the high influx of tourists coming to Morocco, those outside of the domestic economic sector have been reaching into the pool of international visitors for monetary opportunity. However, those who have access to this pool of income are almost exclusively one group of people; the “local actors who benefit most are male” (Kelly-Spurles n.d., 62). This is mostly through the gendering of jobs, and those who have access to interact with the unknown tourists. Women have been taking to the streets of Morocco to offer their stills as henna artists, selling take-away-souvenirs to tourists in the form of henna designs, in order to make some money.

However, it is more difficult than simply setting up a stall in the plaza and calling tourists over with the promise of a personalize design. Women are typically not able to speak with individuals outside their own kin group, which is often symbolized by the way they dress. One way women who are moving to the tourist sector to find work are working around this is by adopting religious idioms, such as the veil or the hijab (Kelly-Spurles n.d., 56). This way, they may avoid some negative attention they may attract for working outside the home, by adopting a more formal style of dress. However, if henna is to be sold to a tourist, the women need to do more than dress conservatively; they need to interact with the tourists and make the henna art readily available.

Beautiful henna on her left hand

Tourists rarely ever want to spend an enormous amount of time in one place while travelling; they have a limited amount of time in the area and want to make the most of it by seeing all they can. A henna artist could invite a tourist to their home to perform henna; however that is almost worse than working on the street in the open, because now someone outside the kin group is in the home and this could be easily misunderstood to be prostitution. Having been a tourist in several countries where I did not speak the language, I noticed most other tourists will stick to the main pathways where the streets are wide and there seems to be a lot of activity. Women who wish to work in the tourist henna sector must move to these public areas in order to interact with the tourist to make a sale. Thus, due to tourists rarely ever being invited into a private home, or leaving the main streets, the henna artists are forced to go where the tourists are.

“Female artisans, operating from a weak base and lacking institutional power, aim to expand and solidify their use of public space. Socially constructed space is engaged here as both a context that reveals power relations and structures women’s actions and as a process in which they participate, as their actions alternately reinforce and resist it (Low, 1996; Erdreich and Rapoport, 2006),” (Kelly-Spurles n.d., 56).

The enormous shift in Moroccan culture, from one where men domimate the working work, to one where it is more likely to find men and women in the same work place, doing different jobs, but behaving in a similar fashion in order to make the most of the economic opportunities opening up with so many tourists wandering through the streets and urban areas of Morocco. This can be discomforting to some people because even if a woman was in the most moderate of costumes, her mere presence in a market or a wide main street challenges the traditional placement of women’s work, which is traditionally in the home. By placing women in an outdoor setting, and have them behave in a businesslike manner like the men, it disrupts patterns of gender.

Tourist sector henna artists will challenge additional gender structures by applying henna to the bodies of men, removing another symbol that is particular to the art of henna – which is typically exclusively applied to the bodies of women. “The hadith show henna on the hands and feet as distinctively feminine” (Kelly-Spurles n.d., 31). I find it odd that henna would be considered exclusive to women as it had originally been meant as a form of cooling the body because it had chemical properties where, if applied to the palm of your hand and the soles of your feet, the wearer would feel cooler than they really were. It would hopefully be assumed that this form of air conditioning would be available to both sexes, and in some parts of the world it is, but in Morocco it is primarily a women’s activity. Perhaps, because of the elaborate artistic and craft attributes which are culturally primarily considered to be women’s work, it had been handed over to the women as a pass time which evolved into and included ceremonial practices and symbolic implications with the style, placement, and application of henna. Whatever the case may be, the placement of henna on the bodies of men challenge the ceremonial and gendered meanings of henna practice.

Women in the work force

                The placement of women in the streets of Morocco challenges gender structures in Moroccan culture, such as the role women play in the economic market of Morocco, where their ‘place’ is in home or the outside world, as well as which gender may wear henna. With tourists visiting cities like Marrakesh, women are taking to the streets in order to dip into this economic opportunity to help support themselves and their families. The presence of women on the streets, behaving in manners of masculinity, and acting as an active participant in the Moroccan job market changes the way Moroccans see the role women play in their own social setting. Tourist sector henna has been criticized quite a bit throughout this blog so far, but in some ways it has brought a bit of equality to the streets of Morocco, allowing women to move around more freely than they had before.

Woman is Belly Dancing

                I wanted to take a moment to share with you something very special to me, and something I love to share with the women around me to inspire them to get up and use their hips for something just for them - and something just as important to the women of Morocco. Belly dancing!

                Belly dancing, as we know it today, is a style of dance that is comes from the North Africa, the Middle East, and as far as South East Asia, and is used as entertainment at parties and ethnic restaurants. Surrounded by sexual premises and implications, belly dancing is sometimes looked down upon by the pious and mild manners, especially considering it is what inspired the style of dance we now call “exotic dancing” (Al-Rawi 2003). However, belly dancing was never meant as a form of entertainment to be observed by others, let alone by men. It began as an exclusively female activity, surrounded in spirituality and meaning, with practical uses such as an exercise for women prior giving birth. The muscle control required for belly dancing provide the strength for women to move their abdominal muscles in a wave motion helping birth that child faster. The skill grew in complexity and it became a style of dance in the North Africa and the Persia for hundreds of years. It is still quite popular today, and can be found in many parts of world, like North America, Europe, India, Turkey, and a similar style exists in south-east Asia and Indonesia.

Drum Beats of Morocco

                One of the most unique attributes of belly dancing is that for centuries it was rarely, if ever, choreographed previous a performance. The reason behind this is that Persian music did not have a written method for recording music, so the musicians made up the majority of their music on the spot. Therefore, up until technological advances provided recording equipment, belly dancing was as spontaneous as the music. This is also why it is much more common to see one belly dancer performing than a group. Trying to organize a group of dancers to freestyle in synchronized fashion is next to impossible, so the dance developed around one dancer dancing at a time, and for the most part that is the way it has stayed even in present day. With recorded music there is now a chance for a group of belly dancers to perform together in synch with each other’s movements, but I have often found this to be a draw back. Removing the spontaneity of the movement allows for greater technical precision and stage use, but it makes the dancers appear stiff. Belly dancing is a very fluid dance, where dancers sway in many circular movements using their hips, arms, head, shoulders, chest, stomach, feet, fingers, wrists, and just about every other joint in their body to make swirling fluid movements. By choreographing it, it forces the dancer to think too much about what they are doing, distracting them from the feel of the dance. I prefer the spontaneous singular form of dancing, where everything is movement and emotion.

                Moroccan belly dancing is quite different from the form of belly dancing I learned how to do, which was more Indian in nature. To begin with, Moroccan dancers like to show off the legs of the dancers quite a bit more than other belly dancers. Frequently the skirt will fall straight to the floor in a straight piece of fabric that is usually without folds or pleats, but often with a slit on the side for a leg to appear for extra movement. Sometimes flared pants are used instead, most often narrowly fitting the top of the legs and then flaring out around the knee but will usually stop before hitting the floor to prevent the dancer from tripping. Sometimes however the pants will be fitted loosely in a light fabric that moves easily and tapers at the ankle – again to prevent the dancer from tripping. The bust is primarily the same as it is everywhere belly dancing is performed; covering the breasts and sometimes the shoulders, but always making sure to show off the naval area or else little movement would be shown and the dance would not be called ‘belly dancing’. Sometimes arm accessories are used, to add some colour and increased movement to the dance. Decorations of the costumes are quite different in North Africa, like in Egypt or Morocco, than in other parts of the Persia and India. Movement is always very important in belly dancing, because by exaggerating the movement caused by the hips, chest or arms of the dancer it increases the illusion the dancer is creating with their body, moving the many parts of the body in isolation. Usually that means there are beads and ‘bangles’ hanging off the costume of the belly dancer, either a belt, the skirt, or the bust, but usually more beading and fewer bangles are used in Moroccan belly dancer’s costumes. The costumes can be simple, or exceptionally elaborate, but are almost always rich with colour and details that catch the light. Professional belly dancing costumes are always heavily beaded and very beautiful, to match the beauty of the woman wearing it. Sometimes, props may also be used, such as very light shawls, finger chimes, and even swords or fire balanced on the dancer's head.

                Many people assume that belly dancing is meant as a sensual and sexual dance, because of the somewhat sexual nature to the movements, and more than anything the lack of clothing.  It is true that belly dancing, at least to me, is a very sensual dance – but rarely is it meant in a sexual manner. Belly dancing is performed in many settings and venues, usually indoor parties or restaurants, including weddings and simple female gatherings where women will join together and dance with each other at a woman’s home (Al-Rawi 2003). The incredible thing about the dance is that girls begin to learn it quite young, either through the women at home or at classes, and the lessons they learn about the stomach motions as children will be remembered during child birth and will help the birth go along much more smoothly (Al-Rawi 2003).

Moroccan Music

                The main objective to belly dancing is to isolate the muscles in the entire body, hips, arms, abdominal, chest, shoulders, neck, legs, and hands so that the dancer can move each one of them individually in order to have complete control over their body so they can perform the dance (Al-Rawi 2003). When first beginning, it is very important to bend the knees, increase the dexterity and flexibility of the hips and abdomen so the dancer can successfully keep their feet planted on the ground and move their hips in circular motions without moving their shoulders. The point behind this is that much later in the development of the dance, dancers will learn how to move their rib cage, hips, shoulders and head all separately, creating an illusion of total movement of the body in harmony (Al-Rawi 2003).

                There is an enormous spiritual component to belly dancing that not many people know the history of, or how to recognize it. The goddess of womanhood is the moon, the celestial body that controls the waters of the earth, and the cycle of women, and like the moon women will meet on top a hill to dance and celebrate the feeling of what it means to be a women (Al-Rawi 2003). Because of the connection women have to their bellies as a source of life, death, and general discomfort every 28 days, the belly becomes the primary subject of the dance, used to strengthen sexual energy, and praise the mysteries of life, opening themselves to the universe to become centered once more (Al-Rawi 2003).  However, as time moved on and the relationship between man, centered in rational thought, and woman, embodying the unpredictability of the natural world, became more distant and distorted (Al-Rawi 2003). It became a dance meant for entertainment purposes, thought to be more of a seductive dance than a moment of spiritual clarity (Al-Rawi 2003). Over time, the dance no longer stood for anything spiritual, and no longer served women as the mystery of being. 

                Even though the exterior view of the dance is one that is of far lower quality than the original intention, the meditative properties of the dance have not changed. When I dance, I always take a moment for the rhythm of the drum, and the melody of the wind instruments to reach inside me and grab hold of something far more ancient than anything I could have ever learned in a dance class. I will feel my heart beat match the rhythm of the drums, and slowly I will feel the music creeping through ever vein of my body, right down to the ends of my toes, the tips of my fingers, right around the crown of my head to the third eye. I will focus all my attentions to that single spot, and let the music come out of my arms and legs in a single string of fluid motions. The energy from the music fills my body with strength that is not my own, and I let it take me away to a place that is not based in thought, but emotion. It is my release from stress, from having to think, and I become lost in the moment. For a short time, I am connected with something far breaker than anything of this world.

                That is what belly dancing is to me; a way to connect with myself and the women around me. It is not meant as something for others to watch for entertainment, it can be a very private thing to me, but best shared with close friends. The joy that is felt from sharing in the dance is what makes me a better dancer, and encourages me to share it with others.

Work Cited

Al-Rawi, Rosina-Fawzia. Grandmother's Secrets. Northampton: Interlink Books, 2003.

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