A Moroccan Jewish woman, Maggie Cacoun, is to “head the women’s list of the Al-Wast Al-Aghtama’i party,” according to The Memri Blog.  Cacoun calls herself a “nationalist Moroccan” and states that she doesn’t want her religion to play a role in her candidacy.

Sefrou is a small town about 32 km south of the fabled city of Fez. Always a religious city, Sefrou was the home to a well-mixed population of Muslims and Jews until Moroccan independence in 1956, when many Jews left Morocco for Israel and Europe. The city is best known for its yearly Cherry Festival, when the cherry trees blossom and a woman is elected as Miss Cherry of Sefrou and displayed on a parade float.

According to Nichane, the Cherry Festival began in 1919, with Miss Cherry of Sefrou represented by a small doll. Then, in 1934, the doll was replaced with an actual woman and over the years, the prize was given to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim women.

Now, the Sefrou Cherry Festival is falling apart - each elected Miss Cherry is subject to harassment within the confines of Sefrou, and Islamists in the area have recently proposed replacing Miss Cherry with a six-year-old in order to not attract men from around the country to attend the festival. But will this actually stop harassment? If a six-year-old girl is paraded around as Miss Cherry, won’t she be objectified just like the baby pageant contestants in the U.S.? (see Jon-Benet Ramsey if you’re unfamiliar with this phenomenon).

Admittedly, I am no fan of beauty pageants. But instead of taking away what is essentially a woman’s right to enter this pageant, wouldn’t it be better to hold men responsible for their actions by criminalizing serious sexual harassment allegations?

Cherry blossom photo by notashamed

Recently, Fatima Sadiqi of the ISIS Center in Fez and Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies sent me some of her articles.  Although we have not met, I contacted her to find out more information on the conference at which Laila Lalami was reading last month, and ever since, she has kept in contact, which I find utterly flattering.

Anyhow, her work is fantastic for anyone interested in language, gender or women’s studies in Morocco.