Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University Department: English Studies

Faculty of Arts & Human Sciences Sais-Fès Major: Literature

Casablanca Between West-Modernity and the

Rest-Tradition in Post-colonial Moroccan Cinema.

A Research Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the B. A Degree in English Studies.

Submitted by: Supervised by:

Oumnia Elharith Pr. Hamid El Mountassir
Exam Number: 452E20

Academic year: 2022-2023

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 Dedication

With hope and purpose, this research is dedicated to my

future-self as a reminder of the dreams and aspirations that
drive my journey towards personal-fulfillment, knowledge and growth.

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 Acknowledgment

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the one and only pr. El Mountassir for
his invaluable guidance, patience, and profound wisdom throughout the course of this
research. I am grateful for his willingness to dedicate time and effort to discuss ideas,
provide valuable feedback, and offer suggestions that have helped to refine this work.

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 Table of Contents

Dedication………………………………………………………………………………..…2
Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………………..3

General
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………5

Part I: The Production of Space…………………………………………………………….8

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………8
1.1. Cinema and Geographic Space………………………………………………………..9
1.2. Cinema and Urban Space…………………………………………………………….11
1.3. Moroccan Urban Cinema: Modern Casablanca………………………………………13
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………14

Part II: The hyphenated identity crisis: Casablanca between the “self” and the
“other” in“Razzia”................................................................................................................15

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..16
1. 1. Casablanca Hybridity………………………………………………………………..18
1.2. The Masculine Modernization of a Traditional Feminine Urban Space……………...28
1.3. Rapping in a traditional space: Casablanca subjectivity in Moroccan Rap Culture….36
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………38

General Conclusion………………………….…………………………………………….39
Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………..41

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 General Introduction.

The emergence of visual media as a discipline confirms the growing centrality of the visuality of

our everyday life. Indeed, This visuality shapes people's attitude and understanding and once

constantly reproduced, constructs a fixed set of meaning for certain issues, perspectives, cultures,

and groups of people. As a matter of fact, visuality is tied with the notion of space in that it

contributes to the creation and interpretation of space through metaphor, meaning, and ideology.

The first part of the research paper investigates the notion of space in cinema as not merely the

setting of stories but generates the narrative both in prose and films, assuming the status

of a character and becoming the fabric of the narrative itself. Cinema may appear to be more

successful than other art forms in conveying the dynamics of space but the usual analysis of film

does not devote much attention to this. However, space can be seen to contribute to the

dynamics of the narrative and can be shown to play an important part in the development of a

variety of considerations, both ideological and artistic. Space is not only recorded as a

background stage its very organization implies a handling of space, revealing the ideology of

the time. Furthermore, The filmic portrayal of space reveals the individual’s perception of

existence, identity, and even broader cultural comprehensions and practices of lived spaces that

show deeper culturally rooted understandings of everyday environments that diverge between

the East and the West. Spatiality, therefore, is an important element in every narrative’s

structure within which events and characters play their roles. It also conveys different symbols,

meanings, and functions that serve as a representative of the collective identity. Since urban

5
landscapes have always been the backdrop of most popular mediums of culture, the first part

offers an analysis of the complex nature of the city and its relationship with the city dwellers,

social roles, and identities. By the same token, The primary objective is to analyze the ways

through which films bring into play the feelings of the city dwellers about the process of change

and their experience with the changing living situation in the light of the imposed values,

standards, and ways of life. Casablanca, therefore, is the case study of my research paper. In fact,

I propose a contribution to the study of cinematic representations of the moroccan city because

of its dual and ambivalent identity which is in the collective imagination is perceived, on the one

hand as “the white city”, the Casablanca, object of desire and attraction, and on the other hand

as “the black city”, Casanegra, object of repulsion and oppression. The purpose, thus, is to be

able to acquire a better understanding of the nature of this city and why its territories more than

any others represent a privileged space for filmmakers, for the development of a discourse on

the city and Moroccan society as a whole.

The colonial project did not only construct, decentralize, or Europeanize cities like

Casablanca, but it also reinforced its own discourses of modernity and its hollow universal

model imposed for all the world to internalize culturally, economically, and even intellectually.

The colonial past of Morocco brought about an endless struggle between tradition and

modernity that colored the intellectual and political landscape of Morocco. For some,

Colonization, on one hand, opened new doors of progress and development imposed by the

“Other”. For others, On the other hand, these transformations constituted a radical break with the

traditional values, principles, and the lost authentic once-glorious “self” incarnated in a tradition.

The assimilation of the European universal model of modernity manifests itself implicitly in

6
Moroccan cinema in a complex and ambivalent way mirroring Morocco’s continuous struggle to

come to terms with its colonial past and define its own identity cultivated by a well-organized

systematic process of becoming and not being of an alien tradition, lifestyle, and values

For this reason, Casablanca has attracted a large quantity of both national and international

cinematic production because of the dualism in its identity. Indeed, the representation of

Casablanca in Moroccan cinema is very complex and ambivalent because it premised upon a

system of binarism: modern/traditional, shelter/prison, opportunities/poverty, Dark city/light city,

freedom/control, thus, Casablanca/Casanegra. The second part provides a textual analysis of the

two movies“Razzia” and “Casablanca Beats”, produced and directed by Nabil Ayouch, which

epitomize the perversion of Moroccan authenticity by the colonial order of modernity through a

focus on the spatial representations of the city. That is to say, while Casablanca serves as a

symbol of modernity and progress, these changes also resulted in conflicting thoughts and

clashing emotions, which gave rise to the feeling of loss, resentment, and fragmentation in the

light of the imposed values, standards, and ways of life that destroyed social bonds, and

encouraged materialism, capitalism, and widened the gap between social classes. Casablanca,

therefore, is considered as a model for all other cities in Morocco because it carries the images of

social, political, and even colonial realities, and most importantly, the struggle of city dwellers

within a modern urban environment that alienates its inhabitants, city dwellers who are forced to

this daily existence in its exotic spaces contaminated with poverty, crimes, political tyranny, and

culture of oppression and repression.

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 I. The Production of Space

Introduction

“A whole history remains to be written of spaces—which would at the same time be the

history of powers —from the great strategies of geopolitics to the little tactics of the habitat.”

(Foucault 149)1.

Space provides an area in which the plot of a narrative can unfold whether real or imagined.
It follows then, that space is a structure within which images are created. Cinematic spaces
extend far behind images to unveil the truth of how cultural and national identities in
landscapes are narrated and represented within a global cinematic community through the use
of metaphor, meaning and ideology. The framing of landscapes is about the construction of
filmic spaces. That is to say, films present the audience with representations of spatial
practices and meanings through the narratives of everyday life and so space becomes a lived
space despite the audience not experiencing it physically. Therefore, the production of space
is a reflection of that society which constructed it. Space, thus, is a cultural product more than
a physical one.

Screen images and narratives contribute to a collective knowledge of spaces and

places. Images of the city on cinema and television screens give symbolic meaning
to spaces by interpreting reality for the spectator. These interpretations and
meanings shape social and collective perceptions about the whole society. Films
contribute to the discourse of the city through the representation of urban space.
Thus, it is important to analyze the way in which these spaces are interpreted,
(mis)represented, and reconstructed. By the same token, it is important to
1
Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings( New York: Pantheon, 1980),
149.

8
understand the ways in which the city has been represented and how it features in
these popular mediums of culture. However, the relationship is not one sided
because films are able to influence their audiences and can alter people’s
perceptions of the city.

1.1. Cinema And Geographic Space

“ Geography matters, not for the simplistic and overly used reason that everything

happens in space, but because where things happen is critical to knowing how and

why they happen”( Warf and Arias 1)2.

On the cinematic screen, our perception of space, both urban and rural, built

and natural, real or fiction, can be audio-visually captured, expressed, or even

reconstructed. The filmic portrayal of space reveals the individual’s perception of

existence, identity, and even broader cultural comprehensions and practices of

lived spaces that show deeper culturally rooted understandings of everyday

environments that diverge between the East and the West. Spatiality is an

important element in every narrative’s structure within which events and

characters play their roles. It also conveys different symbols, meanings, and

functions that serve as a representative of the collective identity.

Since the very inception of cinema, urban landscapes have always been an
integral part of the process of filmmaking. In other words, Popular mediums of
culture, especially cinema and film industry, have always been located within urban
spaces reinforcing the urban qualities with attempts to reflect moments of life in the

2
Barney Warf and Santa Arias, The Spatial Turn: Interdisciplinary Perspectives ( New york: Routledge,
2009), 1.

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metropolis. These representations led to a radical shift in identity and subjectivity,
revealing new spaces to discover and new ways of thinking to adopt by reducing
the boundaries of urban life. Therefore, spaces become crucial in the development
of an urban identity.

Henri Lefebvre, a French social theorist, wrote about everyday life and the city.
His most influential book The Production of Space3 was originally published in 1991.
Lefebvre’s main argument is that space is a social construct which reflects society.
That is to say, the production of space is a society’s way of establishing its reality.
The screen images of cinema contribute meaning to those spaces and will affect
people’s consciousness and perception of space. Films reveal the way in which the
symbolic space is engraved in the everyday lives and lived experiences of the
citizens portrayed in the films and therefore the role of film in interpreting space for
its inhabitants. Cinema reconstructs, re-imagines and edits spaces and the activities
that occur therein. Hence, All these elements suggest that films need to be analyzed
through a variety of lenses.

Cinema is not art for art’s sake. Films are a well organized process of

representation that are ideologically and even politically driven to fulfill a well
implemented agenda for the consumption of the simple mind spectator.
Furthermore, films provide access to unknown spaces, encouraging interaction with
different cities through exploration, familiarity and comfort to fossilize spatial

stereotypes, inaccuracies, and generalizations about certain people within a

community.

3
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space ( Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).

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 1.2. Cinema and Urban Space

“The Rapport between cinema and urban space has formed a determining force, for over

a century, behind the ways in which history and the human body have been visualized

and mediated.”4 ( Barber 7)

The urban space is more than a city inhabited by a group of people or a group of

established institutions, but, historically speaking, it is a cultural community that

sprang from the development of civilization and was connected to religion,

education, economy, and politics. The cities are the incarnations that define the

spectator’s perception of the urban space. As long as the city concerns the Arab

world, it is experiencing urbanization in the same way as in the West. The

urbanization of the Arab society affected the living conditions of city dwellers

because it has brought increased poverty as the socio-economic gap has widened

between the middle and working class, crime, family breakdowns due to rural

migrations to the new urban sites, homelessness, and prostitution. This change has

inspired new modes of representations to this new city culture that can be

expressed and revealed in films.

In The Production of Space (1991), Henri Lefebvre goes on to describe the city as
a ground for struggle over space, in his words, a “blazing bonfire” (93)5 that
consumes everything and everyone in it and he adds that “space is never empty: it
always embodies a meaning” (154)6. The city has always inspired many filmmakers
who have strived to reveal the realities of the new urban life experience. The city,
therefore, has a powerful and direct effect in determining the characters’ moods and
feelings since they find themselves confined by many rules and customs imposed by
4
Stephen Barber, Projected Cities: Cinema and Urban Space ( London: Reaktion Books 2002), 7
5
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of space ( Oxford: Blackwell 1991), 93
6
Ibid

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the environment that surrounds them. Space, accordingly, becomes an element of
characterization via the camera’s framing of the city. The shots of the characters
from within space privilege a point of view that is at the same time that of the
spectator and that of a character from within the city. Placing the spectator within
the space of the film as if he or she is wandering around the city and expressing
oneself as an urban citizen underlines the relationship between agency, identity, and
space.

As the camera moves from one particular space to another, creating a god-like
and omniscient vision, it emphasizes the perspectiveness and engagement of the
spectator with the events taking place in the dynamic city. Films are capable of
representing different viewpoints to make the spectator identify with the narrative
and characters portrayed in order to be engaged and indulged in the world
presented on the screen and the spatial practices of everyday life of a certain people
within a certain community. The screen images of cinema are the best example of
representations of life moments within the chaotic and disorganized city because
films are able to deconstruct it on the screen in a more organized manner so that it
can be a coherent whole and easily interpreted because of the mobility from one

sequence to another, which suggests that the characters move through spaces.

This process of mapping the city is a means of representing urban life and
modernity. The impact of urbanization and modernization on the individual has led a
number of filmmakers to represent the city as alienating, dehumanizing, and
deceiving space where one feels isolated from the external world. These changes of
urban life resulted in conflicting thoughts and clashing emotions, which gave rise to
the feeling of loss, resentment, and fragmentation. Many films exteriorize the real
fabric of the city by unraveling the imposed values, standards, and ways of life that
destroyed social bonds, and encouraged materialism, capitalism, and widened the
gap between social classes

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1.3. Moroccan urban cinema: modern Casablanca

The colonial period in Morocco from 1912 to 1956 witnessed the execution of

political and ideological processes as well as the development of the infrastructure

for the French bourgeoisie in Morocco, including the establishment of “villes

nouvelles” based on modern city designs alongside the traditional medinas, which

the French rearranged. These transformations and the emergence of the modern

city in Morocco are based on the encounter with the French colonization and its

impact on Moroccan urbanism. On one hand, For some, colonization brought

progress and opened new doors of development and modernization. That's to say,

Casablanca was a very tempting and attracting fugitive destination for migrants who

were in quest for a better future and new opportunities to escape poverty. On the

other hand, for others, these transformations constituted a radical break with the

traditional authentic Morocco and produced negative effects on citizens. That is why

the representation of Casablanca in Moroccan cinema is very complex and

ambivalent because it premised upon a system of binarism: shelter/prison,

opportunities/poverty, Dark city/light city, freedom/control, thus,

Casablanca/Casanegra.

Casablanca has always been a glamorous lure for (inter)national film industry. The

metropolis has attracted a large quantity of cinematic production since the first

encounter of Morocco and cinema with the arrival of the French camera operator

Félix Mesguich, and the first film shot in Morocco “Mektoub”. The city is considered

as a model for all other cities in Morocco because it carries the images of social,

political, and even colonial realities, and most importantly, the struggle of city

dwellers within an urban environment that alienates its inhabitants, city dwellers

13
who are forced to this daily existence in its exotic spaces contaminated with

poverty, crimes, culture of oppression and repression, and political tyranny.

Abdelkader Lagtaa’s most popular film A Love Affair in Casablanca (1991) . Casa

Ghoula, an image of the city present in most of the films where Casablanca is seen

from the point of view of rural migrants. In Casablanca the angels do not fly (Asli

2004) and Casa (Benkirane, 2006) are the most recent examples of this category of

films. By the same token, A Love affair in Casablanca by Abdelkader Lagtaa

(1992) which deals with the dualism of Moroccan society, brings into play youth’s

pursuit of sexual, social and political emancipation, and it is a realistic

representation and reconstruction of the practices of everyday life in a modern

space and globalizing society. La Casa Blanca/Negra , an image of a black city,

harsh but itself a victim of men, which is present in Casanegra by Nour-Eddine

Lakhmari (2008)

Conclusion

The country’s largest city and economic capital, Casablanca, has long suffered from

a denial of urbanity and historical representation due to its colonial past and its

cosmopolitan character. The choice of space in most Moroccan films is not arbitrary

but rather intentional because they reveal the process of space characterization.

That is to say, Casablanca is used as a character and its physical space as a dramatic

element of the plot. In fact, the choice of Casablanca comes from the dual and

ambivalent identity which is in the collective imagination is perceived, on the one

hand as “the white city”, the Casablanca, object of desire and attraction, and on the

on the other hand as “the black city”, Casanegra, as an object of repulsion and

oppression. I propose a contribution to the study of cinematic representations of the

Moroccan city. The primary objective is to bring about the images of the metropolis

14
produced in cinema in order to be able to acquire a better understanding of the

nature of this city and why its territories more than any others represent a privileged

space for filmmakers, for the development of a discourse on the city and Moroccan

society as a whole.

II. The hyphenated identity crisis: Casablanca between the “self” and the

“other” in“Razzia”.

Introduction

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 ،‫ وعلى روح الواجب إزاء األسرة‬،‫ القضاء على مفهوم األسرة‬،‫“إذا كان المقصود بالحداثة‬
‫ مما يخدش‬،‫والسماح بالمعاشرة الحرة بين الرجل والمرأة واإلباحية عن طريق اللباس‬
‫ فإني أفضل أن يعتبر المغرب بلدا يعيش‬،‫ إذا كان هذا هو المقصود بالحداثة‬..‫مشاعر الناس‬
.”‫في عهد القرون الوسطى على أن يكون حديثا‬
.147 ‫“ذاكرة ملك” الصفحة‬

The late King Hassan II expressed vigorously, in his book “Recollections of a

King”, that if modernity is about the transgression of moral values and the

toleration of traditional, religious and cultural abuse, He would prefer uncivilized

backward Moroccan society attached to its roots and heritage, proud of the past and

its respected origins as a source of the nation’s power despite all its imperfections

that the colonial ideology tried to deform and disfigure, rather than a modern one

deconstructed and reconstructed through a new tradition largely shaped by European

influences.

The first seeds of this conflict between “tradition” and “modernity” began with the

colonial encounter and became more salient and prominent as the curtains of

colonialism fell. Accordingly, the ex-colonized countries had to embark on a new

chapter of the nation-building process. Despite the countries being emancipated

politically, the very long years of colonial occupation render colonized subjects unable

to arrive at an entire psychological and cultural decolonization which makes the

“Other” presence in the mind and behavior of the colonized inevitable. Therefore,

The colonized were torn between a modern culture imposed by the “Other” and the

lost authentic once-glorious “self” incarnated in a tradition.

The colonial past of Morocco engendered a timeless struggle between “tradition”

16
and “modernity” that marked the intellectual, social, cultural, and political levels.

There is no doubt that this historical event has shaped and influenced how Moroccan

society interacts with religion, culture, language, history, and reality. By the same

token, the Moroccan perception of identity, the self, and national culture is shaped by

the structured dominant systemic elements of colonialism. The use of the French

language for education, social mobility, and a symbol of modernity and progress

epitomizes the social, political, and cultural status quo. To say nothing of the

adoption of Western values, practices, and style of dress to break ties with the

constraints of traditional conservative society. All of the above does not merely reflect

the country’s large colonial history but also the ongoing sustained legacy of

colonialism which was bound to seal the fate of Moroccan society.

This Western modernity/coloniality aims at destroying other nations’ cultures and languages

through the universalization of the essentialist European model. Europe always seems to be

the center of the enlightenment concept of progress, liberty, reasoning and individual freedom.

The Arab world, in return, is expected to internalize this universal European model of

tradition as a natural standardized course of being. However, it is a well-organized systematic

process of becoming and not being nurtured and cultivated by an alien tradition that implicitly

and vaguely manifests itself in postcolonial Moroccan cinema in a complex and ambivalent

way mirroring Morocco’s continuous struggle to come to terms with its colonial past and

define its own identity. Nabil Ayouch’s works align perfectly with this tension between

tradition and modernity through which he enforces and imposes his personal values and

beliefs. His works often explore the experiences of marginalized and oppressed groups such as

women, LGBT groups, and the urban poor individual’s quest for freedom and liberty away

from the traditional rigid society/environment. This requires much scrutiny and analysis.

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 1.1. Casablanca Hybridity

“ Hybridity is the fusion of cultural elements that come together to create

something new and heterogeneous. It is not a fixed or static category, but
a process of cultural mixing and exchange that produces something that is
both different and new. ” ( Bhabha 56)7

Homi Bhabha is a major figure in the development of Postcolonial studies. His field
of focus is premised upon the concepts of hybridity, mimicry, ambivalence and
third space. Hybridity, according to Homi Bhabha, is used to represent the
cross-cultural form resulting from the encounter of colonizer and colonized culture.
Bhabha conceptualizes hybridity to describe the construction of culture and
identity within conditions of colonial antagonism. Indeed, It comes from the
culturally internalized interaction between the colonizer and colonized. That is to
say, both the colonizer and the colonized are reciprocally responsible and
dependent in constructing a shared culture and a mutual construction of the
subjectivity/identity of colonizer and colonized. Nabil Ayouch’s works often explore
the theme of hybridity. In his movies, He often explores the life experiences of
marginalized individuals caught at the crossroads of liberating from the shackles
imposed by the traditional Moroccan society and adopting Western modern values
as the only route to achieve their dreams and desires. His choice of characters are
often categorized by their gender, age, and most importantly social class. the first
section of society, the elite, which have contact with European civilization and are
completely “westernized”. This class is always the source of inspiration to the
younger generation. The second section of society are the ones who refuse, at
any rate, anything European and took tradition as a defense system against
modernity, especially the older generation. Nabil Ayouch associates traditions with
the limitedness of the individual’s freedom and strict religious beliefs and

7
Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture ( London: Routledge, 1994), 56.

18
associates modernity with secularism and the freedom to act the way one desires.
Therefore, It is a culture of religion versus a culture of secularism.

Hybridity, in this sense, goes beyond any binary operation and cultural
domination and oppression, it can exist anywhere in the colonial world. Where
there is social, political, religious, linguistic, and cultural exchange, there is
hybridity. Hybridity, for Bhabha, takes the colonized away from their own culture
and identity to shape a people who are neither themselves; nor the colonizers.
Casablanca, accordingly, becomes a hybrid site that blends the aspects of local
culture and the aspects of European culture to bring to life a new hyphenated
double identity to its physical space which produces people whose identity is
constructed following two paradigms.

Since its beginnings, Moroccan cinema has developed a tradition based on

stereotypes, miscorrections, and inaccuracies about the city. Casablanca becomes
the land where permissiveness, debauchery, and immorality are acceptable in the
name of personal freedom. A man-eating city of virtuous and innocent souls, a city
of lust and corruption, a ruined and lost city, the disillusionment of rural
immigrants, a space that breaks social and religious taboos where ancestral values
of traditional Morocco and identities are immortally effaced under the imposed
modernity. Western Modernity is shown to be the answer to the Moroccan
society's woes and problems and is there to establish human rights in a tyrannic
religious context. Space is highly misrepresented alongside women, religion, and
Moroccan society.

19
“Happy is s/he who can act according to his/her own desires.”

The Berber proverb that Nabil Ayouch opens his film with. “ Razzia” is a Moroccan

French drama film produced in 2017. The title of the film refers to a historical term

“Ghazw” that has been used to describe violent raids or roundups that were carried

out by authorities against marginalized minorities. “ Razzia” incarnates the various

forms of oppression and tyranny faced by different subjugated individuals. The film

is set in Casablanca and was first exhibited at the 42nd Toronto International Film

Festival. In “Razzia”, The French-Moroccan director encompasses five different

stories spinning two time periods between 1982 and 2015. Through these intertwined

stories, “Razzia’” explores themes of identity, culture, and resistance. Furthermore,

the film sheds light on the ongoing struggles undertaken by many in contemporary

Moroccan society. “Razzia” is a powerful portrayal of the complex social and political

issues facing Morocco, for it calls to action for greater empathy and compassion

towards those marginalized communities.

The first part is dedicated to Abdellah, the much-loved teacher, who is living in a tiny

20
village of the Atlas mountains. Abdellah, indeed, is a deeply caring, compassionate,

and ambitious person who believes in the transformative power of education. He is

patient and empathetic toward his students when facing personal problems and

challenges. Abdellah was forced to shift from Berber to Arabic language due to the

directives of the state. The latter, soon, was defeated and left the rural area in quest

of self-discovery, fulfillment, and growth.Through the echo of his shattered dreams,

the disillusions of the four characters embody the sparks that will light up the city in

flames. The film does not fail to address the politics of exclusion of the Berber

cultural and linguistic points of reference.

The first space the film begins with is the marginalized neighborhood of Sidi

Moumen where the character Hakim lives. This district is crowded, chaotic, and

deficient. The neighborhood is presented as a site of struggles and incarnates a

stumbling block in the way of achieving dreams. The film emphasizes the limited

opportunities available to young people particularly those from working class

backgrounds and the impact of social inequality on the aspirations and dreams of

individuals like Hakim. However, Sidi Moumen can also symbolize youth resilience and

resistance to social norms. Despite his poor background, Hakim demonstrates the

strength of his character and his determination to change. He refuses to run at the

stream of his society and disapproves to conform to what society dictates to be the

norms which condemns those who have different immaterial aspirations. He is an

incarnation of freedom, hope, and promise that is going to be an exit from this

dilemma of poverty.

21
Hakim, a jobless young man, who lives in the city’s disadvantaged working- class
Medina district. He is fond of rock music and aspires to be a rockstar like the
British homosexual rock singer Freddie Mercury. However, his poor background
stands as an obstacle in the way of his dream. Hakim believes in the power of
music to liberate society from political tyranny, traditions, and of all politics of
culture of oppression constraints. He, thus, uses music for the sake of artistic
self-expression, to break taboos, and to speak people’s oppressed desires and
concerns. He, thus, performs a song named “Casablanca” with his group of
friends, which articulates into words the harsh reality of youth in the city, including
poverty, unemployment, homelessness, and corruption. The song goes like:

“ Casablanca, Casablanca, Casablanca is always on the move.

We keep try to keep on smiling, but workwise there is nothing.
Our head is stuffed with problems.
Our pockets are empty, our life is just as empty.
No one understands us.
We try to keep on smiling, but only God knows what we’re fighting.
We struggle day and night to build a future.
We got a degree, we learned our French. What good did it do us? “

22
 Hakim’s performance of “Casablanca” is emotive, powerful, and impressive. He
uses music to deconstruct all taboos, norms, social regulations. The song
approximates to the spectator the pain, the alienation, and the resilience
of youth against the grip of social oppression. Moreover, it also brings into
attention the social, economic, political injustice and inequality imposed on these
young individuals.

Hakim is a character who adopts white cultural norms and values in order to
gain social acceptance and escape the stigma of being poor. His admiration for a
british homosexual rock star and his desire to learn French symbolizes the colonial
complex, a state of mind in which the colonized individual accepts and internalizes
the values and norms of the colonizer as superior to his own. Frantz Fanon8, in his
book “Wretched of the Earth”, argues that colonialism is not just a political and
economic system, but also a psychological one, which reinforces a sense of
inferiority in the colonized and a sense of superiority in the colonizer. This
discourse is internalized by both the colonizer and the colonized, creating a sense
of suppression that is different to overcome which produces a generation of
mimics who suffer from identity issues.

“ Mimicry is not a mere copy of the colonizer, but something that resemble and
yet is never identical to it”9 ( Bhabha 122)

The character Hakim represents the concept of mimicry as described by the

postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha. According to Homi Bhabha, mimicry is the
effect of the doubling that takes place when one culture dominates the other.
Some of those dominated will attempt to mimic those in the dominant culture.
Colonial mimicry is the desire to a reformed recognizable “other” in order to make

8
Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth ( New York: Grove Press, 1968).
9
Homi Bhabha, Of mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse ( London: Routledge, 2008)
122.

23
people psychologically embrace the condition of mimicry, inferiority, and
secondalist position. Hakim’s fascination with Freddie Mercury can be seen as an
example of mimicry. He emulates Mercury’s appearance, music style and
performance on stage. He even attempts to learn The French language to fully
embrace the Western cultural identity.

“ The native is being torn between two antagonistic forces the colonial
world and the world of his own, and his struggle to reconcile them by any
means necessary. And this determination to resist the settler-colonialist system
leads the native into conflict with the physical and spiritual framework of
colonialism.”10 ( Fanon 41)

Hakim goes through a certain deterministic conflict of inherent condition of

doubling between being vs. becoming. The colonial mind aims at a total
disintegration from all the points of reference of the colonized including religion,
geography, and culture in order to fragilize people to get easily infiltrated and
remolded to recondition and remake their identity following the other’s image
and end up to be the other’s mimics. However, the discourse of mimicry ends up
with ambivalent slippage. That’s to say, throughout the process of mimicry, the
colonized is bound to get into a condition of conflicting to fall into error. The
ambivalence generated by the mimicry in the case of Hakim is that he ends up
with a neither/nor identity, a condition of uncertainty and confusion. To put it
differently, Hakim is re-fashioned, re-shaped, and re-conditioned to be neither
himself belonging to his native culture, nor the colonizer because he does not
share the European definition of the self. Hakim remains an outsider to the
dominant culture of the colonizer, and he is never fully accepted or assimilated.
Thus, he is left in a liminal state between his own cultural identity and the identity

10
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of The Earth ( New York: Grove Press, 2004), 41.

24
he seeks to mimic. Hakim’s story reflects the complexities of identity construction
following two paradigms in a traditional conservative space influenced by Western
cultural model.

Hakim portrays the ambivalences and complexities of mimicry as a strategy to

gain social acceptance and recognition. The film suggests that while mimicry may
offer a temporary means of survival and adaptation, it ultimately fails because the
process of becoming is always interrupted by the process of being that shapes the

very essentialist nature of the human being. The true liberation, then, can only be
achieved through a rejection of the colonial complex and a reclamation of identity
and culture.

“ It is not simply that Renaissance rediscovered the culture of antiquity,

but that it also rediscovered– or invented – a certain form of knowledge
that enabled it to use that culture for its own ends of domination”11
(Foucault 26)

Michel Foucault, in his book Discipline and Punish, argues that Western powers
have historically used culture as a tool for domination and control, exporting their
values and norms to colonized societies in order to maintain their power and
influence. This quote suggests that the Renaissance, which is often seen as a
period of radical cultural and intellectual flourishing in Western history, was also
characterized by a desire to dominate and control. According to Foucault, the
development of modern power relations involved the creation of new forms of
knowledge and culture that were used to justify and reinforce cultural hegemony
and relations of power.

Visual media, especially films, participate in the creation and dissemination of

11
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison ( New York: Pantheon House, 1977), 26.

25
cultural hegemony by portraying and reinforcing dominant ideologies through images,
narratives, and characterizations. By representing certain groups as inferior or subordinated
and others as superior or dominant. films help to maintain the status quo and perpetuate
systems of power and control. Films, therefore, play a significant role in shaping cultural
narratives and reinforcing dominant ideologies. through the use of images, stories and
characters. As a matter of fact, nothing exists outside ideology and discourse. films are
visual texts shaped by the ideological stands of the producer that carry the discourse of
Western empire and hegemony that pushes the west to celebrate its imaginative superiority
over the “other”. Films are part of the parcel of the epistemic violence that is inflicted
through discourse. Hence, it is a must to develop a contrapuntal12 reading to such films to
bring to the surface the deeper meanings and show how these meanings are actually
complicit with exploitative structures of coloniality that manifest themselves in the form of
characters, spaces, themes, and symbols.

Joe, a restaurant owner in Casablanca, is proud of his Jewish Moroccan

identity. However, he struggles with feelings of alienation and marginalization that
exist within Moroccan society in regard to the diversity of religions. Indeed He is torn

12
Contrapuntal reading refers to a mode of reading which reveals how some literary texts are deeply
implicated in the ideologies of imperialism and colonialism. It also aims at uncovering the contexts of
cultural production. Basically, It is a term invoked from music and developed by Edward Said who argues
that such reading demands looking for what is not said and examining the significance of small plot lines and
other marginal element of a text.

26
between his love for his homeland and his need to distance himself from the anti-semitic
attitudes he faces in Moroccan society. Joe and his father reflect the persecution and
discrimination that the Moroccan Jews have faced over the centuries. As a Jewish man
living in Morocco, He is not fully accepted by the Moroccan Muslim community, nor does
he fully identify with the Western. By the same token, He struggles to reconcile the
differences between these two opposite identities.

Casablanca does not merely function as a broad symbolic dimension but also as
a midpoint composite of two opposite extremities: “modernity” and “traditions”,
the “Self” and the “Other”. Casablanca becomes what Homi Bhabha calls “Third
Space”.
“The Third space is a place of hybridity. It is a place of ambivalence and
contradiction. It is a place where cultural boundaries dissolve, where
new identities are constructed and constantly contested(...), where new
modes of identities emerge and are constantly being redefined” ( Bhabha 37)13

Casablanca, in “Razzia”, is a site where the old and new coexist but paradoxically
in a state of tension and conflict, It creates a space where tension between the
desire to hold onto tradition and the impulse to embrace the new. Indeed, The
film’s representation of Casablanca is not only limited to its physical space, but it
rather delves deeper into the city’s cultural, social, and political fabric. Casablanca,
thus, becomes the crucial site for the battle over new identities in light of the
so-called modernity, which is understood as a global civilization that exalts the
new, progressive, and innovative. However, it introduces new forms of conflict into
traditional societies, which can disrupt the traditional ways of life and create a
sense of loss, alienation, isolation, and instability in modern urban life.

“The essential paradox of modernity is that it must always produce

13
Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture ( London: Routledge, 1994), 37.

27
 tradition, and yet give way to the new, which is always modern,
always changing , always accelerating.”(Said 308)14

The paradox of modernity lies in its contradictory nature. To put it in another

way, while modernity is often associated with progress and rejection of traditional
ways of life, it is also constantly producing new traditions and cultural forms.
Furthermore, as a result of colonialism and capitalism, modernity, in “Razzia”,
perpetuates cultural hegemony by enforcing Western values and ways of life,
rather than allowing for a truly diverse and equal exchange of ideas and practices.
Modernity, therefore, becomes a form of cultural hegemony, where the dominant
culture uses its power to shape and control the beliefs, values, and practices of
other cultures. Therein lies the paradox of modernity, in which the promise of
progress and development is accompanied by forms of oppression and inequality
that perpetuate cultural hegemony.

1.2. The Modernization of a traditional feminine Urban Space.

“Women are the hinges on which the door of tradition swings back and forth
between the old and the new. It is through them that the battle lines
between forces of modernization and the forces of tradition are drawn and
fought. They are the ones who face the most painful contradictions of
modernity.” (Mernissi 136)15

Women are potent symbols of identity and nation, and most important an urban
landscape. They do not only represent political and economic power, but
“symbolic” power as well. The symbolic power is often represented in language,
education, art, ideology, and most importantly religion. Furthermore, Women are

14
Edward said, Culture and Imperialism ( New York :Vintage Books, 1993), 308.
15
Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society (New york: Indiana
UP, 1975), 136.

28
caught in a paradoxical situation in which they are both the symbol of tradition
and agents of change. That is to say, women, on the one hand, are expected to
preserve their religious practices and cultural heritage through strict adherence to
dress codes, gender roles, and social norms. On the other hand, women are also
expected to be educated, productive, engaged in the social political spheres, and
to contribute to the development of their societies, and to mimic Western dress
and modes of behavior to translate and bring to the surface their “modernity”.

Salima, is a free-spirited modern woman, who cannot see a reason to submit to

the traditional views of men, causing further problems in her relationship with her
husband. She dresses rather immodestly with her hair fluttering in the breeze and
takes a dip in the ocean after passing by a protest against the reform of
inheritance laws, the crowd bristling with placards declaring “inheritance law must
not change!'' and “men and women are not equal”.

Salima might appear to be an independent woman, but her husband speaks for
the existing society and wants Salima to confide in the private sector. The
standard image of womanhood in a patriarchal male-dominant society that
condemns women to eternal self-sacrifice. Her husband is there to reinforce the

29
system of oppression imposed by society to limit Salima’s freedom and to remind
her of social regulations and gender roles. It is the patriarchal ideology of the
male-oriented society that binds women only to remain inside the house and take
care of the children. Salima refuses to submit herself to a domestic role and
identity. Indeed, her last reaction of quitting the house was the result of
inexorable patience, resistance, and endurance to a number of atrocities caused
upon women. Her final act was to break ties with the domestic life she had and to
reverse the image of the social oppression that her gender role dictates. The act
of quitting the house can be interpreted as the dream of feminism in the liberation
of females from the patriarchal loose society. This also reflects the patriarchal
power of order in a cultural landscape.

Muslim women's intellectual engagement with religion marked a turning point

in the late twentieth century.They denounced Islam as the leading force behind
the gender- specific sociocultural segregation. As a matter of fact, the premise
was that Islam was inherently patriarchal and the seeds cause of subjugation. This
was evidenced in its laws regarding veiling, matrimony, inheritance, and domestic
duties and privileges. Accordingly, women felt that the confining nature of Islam
stopped them from fighting with the patriarchal system. As a result, they
disentangled from their religion and adopted an entirely alien ideology, Western

30
feminist ideology.

The legal and social status of women in the Middle East is perceived as
being inferior in quality to that of women anywhere else. Women, in the Middle
East, are believed to be domestic with sole purpose in life being identified as that
of good wives and mothers. However, these stereotypes about women and the
Muslim world image in general began to emerge as early as the seventeenth
century through Western travel writings in which women were secluded and
subjugated by means of the harem. Indeed,“Oriental” women were represented
as mere sexual objects which were owned by men. This submissiveness, docility,
and domestic identity, in fact, were purely the construct of the Orient’s
imagination. Orientalists manipulated the meaning of Muslim femininity to
effectively dehumanize Muslim women. These images pervaded the thought
about the Middle East for centuries, even though being a product of a mere
fantasy.

In 1978, Edward Said, in his book Orientalism16, explained the pervasive

stereotyping and continued West domination of the Orient. He based his
arguments on the premise that the world was inherently divided into two spheres.
This distinction creates a conflict between a modern “superior” ideological identity
against what was constructed as a lesser identity. This Western ideology has
affected thinking about the Middle East to the extent that even today most people
cannot differentiate between what is real and what is an inherent imagination of
Orientalism.

If this distinction is as prevalent as it once was, it can indicate that the West is
still trying to import its ideological framework as a tool to modernize, but this time
it is a well-organized fundamental religious ideology that can effectively destroy

16
Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1995).

31
the balance of power that maintains the stability of the Middle East countries. In
effort to maintain this balance of power, the West has continually pushed the idea
of modernization.
“ The great dilemma of our society, which is characterized by an increasing
awareness about the right to modernize, is that it is impossible to
modernize without westernizing, and it is impossible to westernize without
losing the fundamental basis of our society, which is Islam.” (Mernissi 39)17

While there is a growing recognition of the need of modernization, there is also a

concern that this modernity may bring about the adoption of Western values and
norms that contradict the entrenched Islamic culture of Morocco.

“Modernity promises liberation from the restrictions of traditions, but

on the other hand, it brings new forms of oppression and marginalization.
Women are told that they can have more freedom and autonomy, but this
often means adopting the values and behaviors of the dominant
culture, which are not always in their best interests.”18

Islam is a religion that gives full rights to all people, whether they are black
or white,man or women more than this Islam honored woman . However, the roots
of female subjugation in Islam do not lie in the Quran19 , in the sunnah20 or in
Islamic history, but in the conflict between women's rights and the interests of the
men. As an Islamic feminist framework reveals, religious texts are misinterpreted,
used and abused to perpetuate patriarchal society and men’s interests, which
misinterpretation and misuse contributes to the prevalence of women’s domestic
identity in Morocco. Hayat Naciri says:

17
Fatima Mernissi, Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub,
1991) 39-50.
18
Ibid
19
Religious book of Islam
20
Social, legal customs and practices of Islamic community

32
 “The Moroccan society is built on the Islamic law that regulates issues related to
women such as marriage, divorce and inheritance. However, the religious text is
misinterpreted and misused to serve men’s interests only. Islam has nothing to do
with these behaviors, but it is the fault of the misapplication of Islam and its
ideologies. In many ‘Islamic’ countries, women are not treated according to their
God-given rights. Many of these rights, however, are based on cultural and
traditional customs that have been injected into these societies.”21

Faith , for many Muslim women, is an integral part of their identity and can
indeed be used to challenge patriarchal norms and practices. Islam is not the
problem, rather the solution to women’s problems. Women are now returning to
the text of their faith and working within the confines of an Islamic ideology to
reclaim their Islamic right to challenge interpretations of Islam that are used to
justify gender inequality.

Visual media can be a powerful means for perpetuating cultural stereotypes and
traditional gender roles that are deeply embedded in Western societies. As a
matter of fact, Western culture and its ideologies of individualism and liberalism
perpetuate gender roles and attribute it to religion. In Razzia, Casablanca
becomes not only the battle field over identities, but also where Islam and
Western ideologies are engaged in a fight for supremacy.

21
Hayat Nasiri, “Gender-Based Violence in Morocco: Domestic Violence as a Case in Point” ( culture and
society: journal of social research 2018) 9.

33
Inès, a young lady in the middle of a teenage crisis and sexual awakening phase.
Her mother is rarely home and her nanny is the rational adult presence she
knows. There is a scene of Inès and her friends discussing matters of sexual
intercourse without marriage and losing virginity.This scene is very significant
because it shows her questioning her sexuality while simultaneously reflecting the
lack of adequate sexual education in Morocco and islam principles among the
upper class. Throughout the films, this character appears to be struggling and
constantly feeling the stigma that surrounds her sex and sexuality. What connects
these four characters is their quest for freedom, freedom of the woman who can
no longer stand being dictated to her conduct, freedom of the jew who is tired of
being brought back to his Jewishness, freedom of the artist who wants to exercise
his art without censorship. However, This teenager does not know what to do with
the freedom that gives her social status. While the poorest of Moroccans live in
misery and pour into islamism, the richest engage in debauchery behind the raised
walls of their luxurious villas.

The picture above is intensely symbolic, for it creates a dichotomy equating

Western clothing with modernity and Muslim clothing with backwardness,
Furthermore, it can also convey that the modernity and liberation of a woman can

34
be seen in her abandonment of islamic ways including clothing. the veil becomes
a tool for subjugation in which Islamic societies could completely erase women as
identifiable entities. Nevertheless, The veil is not a piece of cloth; it is a powerful
symbol of identity, personal agency, and an assertion of control over a female's
own body and choices. While the feminist Western ideology is based upon the
female misconduct, looseness and immorality, and too free to be controlled as a
thought that calls for social justice; Islamic feminism celebrates women’s choice
to embrace modesty as an expression of their identity and commitment
embodying humility, respect, and most importantly, dignity.

Women, Amazighen, young people, jews, and artists. All of them represent the
culture and politics of oppression in the Moroccan landscape. The silent pain living
inside each of the characters finds a remedy in the chaotic scene of the film when
the world of the film clashes violently. However, this terrifying scene symbolizes
liberation, revolution, and healing. Each Moroccan can identify with one of the
characters, the rebel, the fighter, the isolated, and the unloved. The film “Razzia”
is premised upon cultural, social, gender clashes: the cultural clash is depicted
through the characters’ dilemma to preserve cultural traditions and embracing
Western values. The social class highlights the inequalities that exist in
socio-economic society that privileges the rich and marginalizes the poor. Last but
not least, the gender clash emphasizes the treatment and condition of women in
social cultural context controlled by the status quo of patriarchal society par
excellence and it reflects the extent of the male chauvinistic patriarchal crave for
power and domination.“razzia”, besides the ideologies inflicted, is a perfect
portrayal of different conditions of injustice, sexism, and exclusion in Moroccan
society. Indeed, It calls for an enactment of policy of change as well as
legal justice that guarantees these people the bare minimum right, a decent living.

35
1.3. Rapping in a traditional space: Casablanca Subjectivity in Moroccan Rap
Culture.

“Through our music, we challenge the status quo and shed light on
the realities of our society. We want to inspire change and empower
others fight against social oppression”- Anas,the teacher.

“Casablanca Beats” or “Raise your voice”, Nabil Ayouch’s new film, focuses on the
experiences of unprivileged young rap musicians in quest for recognition and
recognizability in a traditional conservative space. Their use of the local dialect,
Moroccan Arabic, epitomizes the characterization of Casablanca as an integral part
of rappers’ identity that influences the way the lyrics are written and interpreted.
The city landscape, in Casablanca Beats, is portrayed as an object of accusations,
for lack of opportunities, unemployment and poverty. These young non-conformist

36
characters use rap to direct people’s thoughts and consciousness to social issues
that need addressing. Rap, therefore, is a symbol of youth resistance and
resilience against the grip of social and political oppression. The film addresses the
importance of youth investment to produce effective responsible members of
society for futuristic development and prosperity to every nation.

Anas, a former rapper, who comes to teach at the Positive School of Hip Hop in
Casablanca, believes in the liberation power of rap to help the oppressed find his voice in a
conservative society that limits their potential and creativity. Most of his students struggle
at home, parental issues, even hunger. The film brings into play the youth struggle for
social justice in a society marked by economic inequality, limited opportunities, and social
marginalization.The strength of Moroccan rap lies in its ability to break societal taboos, to
speak people’s repressed desires and aspirations, and to denounce patriarchal social order.
The streets of Casablanca shape the identity of Moroccan rap, fueling its authenticity,
resilience, and the ability to address social issues with unfiltrated honesty or euphemistic
language. Therefore, rap is an urban popular culture that shows how urban landscapes
constitute a space that speaks their realities, aspirations, and dreams.

The film brings together the two oppositional extremities of modernity and
traditions through the dynamics of gender, age groups against the fundamentalist
Islamic culture in Casablanca. The narrative indulges also with the notion of morality as an
attempt to provide a critique of the conservative religious discourse. The youth, on one
hand, are drawn to Western music, fashion, and lifestyle as a means of self-expression and
as a form of rebellion against the constraints of traditional Moroccan society and the
limitations imposed by its traditional values. In fact, the choice of youth is not a random
one. That is to say, the youth inexperience, immaturity, and their cultural alienation ensures
a future dominance of Western cultural values and conception. Therefore, youth holds the
torch of change against the atrocities caused by the culture of traditions. On the other hand,
the conservative elements of society view rap and hip hop culture as a threat to the moral

37
fabric of society. This clash between young musicians and the conservatives lays the
foundation of the conflict between modernity and traditions. Casablanca, thus, becomes an
arena of combat, struggle, abuse, psychological agitation, and the tension between
different ideologies through depicting the Moroccan city, its moment of ambivalence,
conflicts with the self and other, cultural alienation, and social upheavals.

Conclusion
The hyphenated identity crisis of casablanca is prominent in, on one hand, its dilemma of
in-betweenness and European norms of liberation. On the other hand, the desire to embrace
the national, traditional, and cultural roots. Casablanca, accordingly, becomes a hybrid site
that blends the aspects of local culture and the aspects of European culture to bring to life a
new hyphenated double identity to its physical space which produces people whose
identity is constructed following two paradigms.

38
General Conclusion

It has been aimed from this research paper to examine some of the movies of Nabil Ayouch

in which Casablanca serves as a character for the development of the plot in order to bring to

the surface the deeper meanings and show how these meanings are actually complicit with

exploitative structures of coloniality that manifest themselves in the form of characters,

spaces, themes, and symbols. For Moroccan filmmakers who studied and lived abroad like

Nabil Ayouch, Modernity/Tradition, the Self/Other dichotomies are the central themes in

visual representation of space. In both Razzia and Casablanca Beats; Casablanca struggles to

locate itself in the “center” while its inhabitants are torn between the binaries of “Here” and

“There”. This brings into play the hyphenated identity crisis of the urban landscape between,

on one hand, its dilemma of in-betweenness and European norms of liberation. On the other

hand, the desire to embrace the national, traditional, and cultural roots. Nabil Ayouch calls for

a radical epistemological break with traditions, religion, and cultural roots by adopting a

universal approach of modernity that totally denies the subjectivity of Moroccan historical

identity. According to Walter Mignolo, there is no modernity without coloniality. the

decolonial thinking, therefore, is the only way towards the epistemological disobedience and

delinking from all the colonial orders of power in order to build a solid and confident society

that can position and disassociate itself from the colonial knowledge, subjects, ways of

thinking, lifestyles, values and institutions. In addition to promoting cultural hegemony, Nabil

Ayouch holds religion responsible for the disfranchisement and atrocities his characters go

through as he points his fingers of blame to the stubborn, uncritical adherence to ‘traditional’

religion as the main factor holding back Muslim societies which only shows his ideological

stands against Islam. Modernity, for Nabil Ayouch, is the lack of a religious-ethical foundation

and the lack of any moral guidelines in modern life. the latter, therefore, misunderstood and

failed to acknowledge that modernity, first of all, is premised upon respecting the other’s

39
religious beliefs, principles, and cultural performances through interfaith and intercultural

dialogue which he clearly lacks with his unnecessary persistent calls for fake modernity and

reforms to free Moroccan society from the shackles of the ‘traditional’ religion. Ayouch

promotes cultural hegemony which is the opposite of the foundation of modernity and, in

return, reminiscent of the dark ages of colonial superiority and imperialism. Eventually, This

research aims to correct the miscorrection about the notion of modernity in Nabil Ayouch

filmic discourse because being modern does not mean being Western, nor does it mean to

adopt Western cultural performances. However, being modern, in the first place, is to be aware

of the notion of modernity itself before claiming to modernize, or rather westernize, the

traditions of the rest of the world. The notion of there even being a 'rest of the world', from

whatever perception, is something ‘modern’ people need to change.

40
Works Cited

● Foucault, Michel. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings

1972-1977, ed. Colin Gordon. New york: Pantheon, 1980.

● Warf, Barney and Santa Arias. The Spatial Turn: Interdisciplinary perspectives.
New York: Routledge, 2009.

● Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space, trans. Donald Nicholso. Oxford:

Blackwell, 1991.

● Barber, Stephen. Projected cities: Cinema and Urban Space. London: Reaktion
Books, 2002

● Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.

● Bhabha, Homi. Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.

London: Routledge, 2008.

● Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New york: Grove Press, 1968.

● Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984. Discipline and Punish : the Birth of the Prison. New
York :Pantheon Books, 1977.

● Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York :Vintage Books, 1994.

● Said, Edward W. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. New York:

Vintage Books, 1995 (1979).

● Mernissi, Fatima. Beyond the Veil: Male-female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim

Society, ed. John Wiley and Sons. New York: Indiana UP, 1975.

● Mernissi, Fatima. Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World. Trans.Mary Jo
Lakeland. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub., 1992. Print.

● Nasiri, Hayat. “Gender-Based Violence in Morocco: Domestic Violence as a Case

in Point”. Culture and Society: Journal of Social Research, 2018.

41