The Berber Dimension

Abstract

I spent the academic year 2006–07 at Harvard Divinity School as a Fellow in Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP). During my December 2006 fieldwork trip to Morocco, I visited Hadda, a paternal aunt who had lived all her life in Imshihn (Ayt Hssan tribe), my Berber village. Every trip to this village brings up sweet childhood memories … Hadda is one of my father’s nine half-sisters (my own grandmother, Najma (star), died shortly after the birth of my father and none of my step-grandmothers had a son). As a child, I used to think of my grandmother a lot because my father often talked about her although he never knew her and used to take me with him to pray on her tomb during our annual visits to the village. He also used to talk about Hadda, his favorite half-sister. Ever since Hadda became some sort of icon for me: a beautiful, strong, outspoken, and hard-working woman. She was very clever with her hands—she would make djellabas (men’s outdoor garments) for my father whom she called “’zizi” (my dear one). She was also the “carpet-weaver” of the family. Hadda’s carpet-weaving was a subject that everyone would talk about in the household.