Seeking God in Captivity: Politics of Memoryand Religiosity in Morocco

Mohammed EZROURA Mohamed 5 University, Morocco

Politics of Memory, Writing and Spirituality

The aim of this presentation is the study of some recentMoroccan prison writings as a practice in the politics ofmemory. Of particular interest is the significance of thedifferent dimensions of the subject of this prison-writing;namely, the modes of memorialization, the cultivation ofreligiosity inside the jail and its relationship to thesocial fabric outside the jail, the methods of resistancedeveloped by the prisoners to stand torture and securesurvival, and – last but not least -- the nature of theprison as a State apparatus (a Panopticon) endowed with aparticular socio-politico-religious corrective mission thatlooks after the nature of imprisoned subjects who havewandered off “the right path.” The historical juncture thatthese writings are concerned with is post-independenceMorocco, a period that has become known (in the language ofMoroccan Human Rights culture) as “the Years of Lead”("sanawaat arrassaass" in Arabic, or "les années de plomb" inFrench). Within this framework, other sociopolitical andcultural issues of postcolonial Morocco emerge in this richand impressive prison literature. Beside its role in securingindividual survival and the impulse to reveal the truth abouta crucial moment in the history of the Country, thisliterature presents a detailed view of the prisoners' tragedyand their metamorphosis, both physiologically due to tortureand spiritually in terms of revising their attitudes towardsa number of religious, human, philosophical, political andpersonal issues. As Abdelfatah Fakihani, who has spent 15years in prison, explains:

1

The “years of Lead" have not been forgotten. They have endedup being revisited by the State, the media… They have sobadly violated the Moroccan soul that a reaction, whosetiming nobody had ever predicted, has finally emerged to thelight of day. The accumulation of suffering, of arbitrarydetention, of torture, of kidnapping, of collectivepunishment (sometimes of whole regions), and especially,the absence of noted changes in the practice of the securityapparatus; all this could no longer be run by the State,which was very much criticized abroad over the question ofliberties. (Fakihani, Le Couloir, p.151; trans. mine1)

It was only normal that an explosion of writing erupted afterthe radical shift that happened in Morocco in late 1990s, tocapture this special moment in the political and culturalhistory of the Country (and the region), and to historicizefor a human experience that involved various players who haveinteracted even outside the common boundaries of the Moroccansociety; reaching even farther beyond its northern shoresinto the heart of Europe and the Middle East.

A Historical Background

Indeed, around the turn of the 21 century, the post-colonialMoroccan society witnessed a seismic cultural and politicalshake-up that was triggered by the sudden emergence of aprofusion of Prison-writings reporting on the terribleincarceration conditions that a large number of prisoners ofconscience had endured for several decades earlier. Thisperiod, extending from mid-60s to late-90s of the lastcentury, and known as "the years of lead", (sanawaatArrassaass) spanned the whole period of the reign of late KingHassan II. Three notorious figures of this period who headedthe Ministry of Interior were the architects of this period'srepressive policy: they were General Mohamed Oufkir, GeneralMohamed Dlimi, and the professor of law turned Minister ofInterior, Driss Basri, who died in Paris in disgrace inAugust 2007. As noted earlier, it was a period of relentlessconfrontation between the State and the left, resulting insummary imprisonments; show trials, kidnappings, and massive1 All translations from French and Arabic are mine, except when indicated otherwise.

2

repression of secular radical intellectuals.2 Many of theprison narratives produced later depicting this period werealso turned into movies3 that revealed to the Moroccans andthe world at large a horrendous world whose existence theycould only imagine, but whose unfathomable atrocity nobodycould grasp fully. Members of the Moroccan intelligentsia(writers, artists, students, political activists, andmilitary officers of various ranks), who had conspiredagainst the regime, were hunted down and condemned to yearsof imprisonment, varying from minimal sentences toperpetuity. For the civilian prisoners, their punishment wasmostly for belonging to underground radical organisations(Marxist, Trotskyite, or Maoist), and for espousing radicalpolitical agendas that were perceived as a threat to theregime. In contrast, the jailed ex-military officers, whoreceived special harsher treatment in worse jail conditions,had been involved in two major consecutive coups against theKing in 1971 and 1972 – in highly complex circumstances.Those officers who had been spared by the firing squads foundthemselves locked up in windowless concrete cells in desertjails, in subhuman conditions, totally cut off from theoutside world, as if buried alive. Those who remainedincarcerated in city jails in Casablanca, Kenitra, Sale,Rabat, or elsewhere, were relatively more privileged in theirtreatment, for at least they could benefit from theirfamilies' weekly visits and contacts with the outside world.They also had access to books and longer hours outside theircells.

Faced with a spiteful apparatus intent on annihilating them,these prisoners had to find ways of resisting annihilationand to secure survival: the act of memory through oralnarratives to entertain themselves in jail, the practice ofwriting (when possible) as a way of narrating theirexistence, and especially their spiritual search forreligious salvation in jail contributed a great deal to theirsurvival. In addition to narrating memory, historicizing a2 See Susan Slyomovics, The Performance of Human Rights in Morocco (2005) 3 Some of the movies produced around this topic are: Derb My Cherif, Jawhara, Chambre noire,

3

crucial epoch of the Moroccan society, and chronicling theordeals of the dead and the survivors, the prisoners’ act ofwriting (after their liberation) has revealed superhumanstrength in jail and exceptional defiance in the face ofextenuating circumstances.

Writing and Faith as the Path to Survival

The prison narratives are also detailed descriptions of thedifferent activities that the detainees applied themselvesto, day and night, inside their cubicles in defiance oftorture, oblivion, and death. Through writing, the prisonerinvented his own special universe, a mixture of dreams andreality, hallucinations and nightmares, a world inhabited bythe people who inspire life, hope, and struggle. Other timesthose who inhabited the prisoner's world were Jinns, goblins,and she-demons. Through writing, the prisoner would alsostrive to communicate with his surrounding world both insideand outside the prison (and both inside and outside Morocco).The epistolary character of prison-writing only explains theextend to which letter writing was a major activity (mode) inthe life of the prisoner, both as an act of establishingcontacts with those outside the prison and as a cultivationof the act of existence and resistance as well. The mostsymbolic text of this act of communication is Salah ElOudie's Al Areess (The Groom), a collection of letters addressedto his mother in which he assumes that these letters wouldreach her only after his death in jail. In fact, thecollection of letters are framed by a letter addressed to themother by the main narrator in the book. Here the act ofwriting had given up hope of any possible survival and hastransgressed imposed censoring norms for posteriority. Ina biting Swftian humour and Rablesian carnivalesque imagery,the narrator of Al Areess details the scenes of torture thatare served to him as a daily diet in the secret detentioncentre of Derb Moulay Charif in Casablanca.

Through ‘writing’ memory, either in smuggled writing or oraltelling of his experience, the prisoner engages in a

4

continued struggle to reform himself through a whole processof self-evaluation, re-assessment of pre-jail politics, arevision of his philosophy and political alliances, as wellas remapping of his ex-organization's worldview and pitfalls.While settling scores with his pre-jail political, moral, andreligious beliefs, the prisoner goes through a process ofrebirth, a kind of metamorphosis, even a pseudo-conversionthat sometimes negates his pre-jail secular philosophy andpolitical creed.4 The rebirth process often starts in prisonand continues after the prisoner’s release as part of a wholeprocess of reintegration into the social fabric; an attemptat reconciliation with the self and the world. Other times,such a revisionary move reveals some lack of firm beliefs inthe radical creed for which the prisoner had beenincarcerated in the first place; also a form of sell-out tothe State.

In the Moroccan context, the activity of writing is oftencompounded with the cultivation of religion, piety, andspirituality among many prisoners. Spirituality strengthensthe act of writing and lends a positive sense to the struggleto secure survival. Cultivating religiosity in captivity isa striking phenomenon in this whole process of memory writingand struggle for survival in Morocco. Religiosity grants theprisoner the possibility of potential expiation for hisprevious sins, a way of seeking pardon from God and society;but it is especially a gesture to demonstrate a certainuprightness, good citizenship, and even innocence vis-à-visthe State, which would often be perceived as having actedunjustly in jailing the prisoner. Prisoners are hardlyconvinced of the fairness of their jail-sentences.

However, it must be noted that the cultivation of religiosityand spirituality did not win unanimous acceptance among allthe prisoners of the period discussed here. Their differentideological affiliations remained clear markers of theirattitudes towards religiosity in Jail. If we compare the4 See Abdelfattah Fkihani, Le Couloir (The Corridor), Driss Bouyessef Rakab, Sous l'ombre de LallaChama (Under the Shelter of Lady Chama), Mohamed Raiss, Tadhkirat Dahab wa Iyyab Il Al Jaheem (A Return Ticket to Hell)

5

different writings – at least the texts we are dealing withhere5 – we note that the writings coming out of the worstprison, Tazmamart, where the military officers were held,depict the prisoners as being strikingly more religious thanthose held in the other civilian jails of Kenitra, Rabat,Sale, or Casablanca, where the prisoners were not military.It must be noted also that the radical intellectuals who wereincarcerated during this period in Morocco were generallyradicals, belonging to splinter groups from socialist orMarxist-Leninist organizations, such as the students movementUNEM, "Ila Alaman", the "23d of March", and "Let's Serve thePeoples". Here, the writings concern mostly advocates ofWesternized secular ideologies, which should not be separatedfrom the socio-political turmoil that swept over Europe andAsia during the Cold War period.

The radical Jihadist groups – like Assalafyya Al Jihadiyya,Al Qaida, and others -- are a phenomenon of the followinggeneration, particularly of the late 90s and early 21st.century, whose model of reform is clearly anti-Western. Thisgeneration has not produced its own prison literature yet;may be we must wait for the release of its leaders to readtheir prison writings. And judging from the current mediareports about these prisoners, history seems to repeat itselfin terms of hunger strikes in jail, lengthy jail sentences,torture, and kidnappings; except that on the ground, there isno Tazmamart for those accused of terrorism; this Moroccan‘Alcatraz’ was demolished in 2006.

The Creation of Memory through writing defies death andensures survival; similarly, the cultivation of spiritualityand religiosity grants the power to resist torture andannihilation. The belief in God as the determining factor inthe prisoner's fate and tragedy drives him to exhibit morereligious and spiritual modes of conduct, such as recitingthe Quran, praying, fasting regularly, and rejectingmaterialistic and atheistic explanations of the universe,

5 See bibliography below.

6

which were practices that dominated his life before theimprisonment.

However, one notes that when religiosity becomes excessive –as noted by Mohamed Raiss, in the case of a prisoner whodevoted his time totally to God by fasting daily, praying andreciting the Quran all the time – this devotion became fatal.The prisoner did not live long, resembling an act of wilfulsuicide.

The act of writing memory is combined with the religious actof declaring faith in God as the saviour; both the acttowards God and the act of writing become carriers ofsynonymous meanings. Faith and writing grant support andlegitimization to each other. In fact looking at the list ofprison-writings, we note that those who have remained aliveand defied death are the ones who had possessed the will toconstruct memory, to write their experience, to documenttheir suffering, and to share their tragedy with the world atlarge. It was the act of writing and the smuggling of writtentexts out of jail to the world outside (families, media,Amnesty International, human rights groups, etc...) thatactually helped secure their survival and ultimate release(eg. Laabi, Rakab, Al Ouadie, Raiss, Hachad, Belakbir,Chaoui, Merzouki, and others.)6 They all managed to smuggletheir writings outside the prisons, which helped greatly ingetting their conditions known to their relatives and tointernational human rights NGOs, which helped secure theirrelease. Those prisoners who perished in their cells hadhardly engaged in any writing, nor left behind any writtentraces – apart from few exceptions. The only way to defydeath was for these prisoners to write to communicate theirordeal. Only those who managed to manipulate the pen andscribble their suffering on odd pieces of paper seem to bethe saved few. Abdelatif Laabi, a poet and teacher who hasspent 10 years in jail and has won a special place in thehistory of human rights in Morocco grants writing a specialplace in his jail experience. In Chronique de la citadelle d'exil,6 See detailed bibliography below.

7

Laabi writes to his wife: "La littérature que je veux,l'œuvre que je me suis fixée, me tuera ou me sauvera de ladictature du néant" (p. 23, "Lettre 8 aout 1972"). Not unlikeLaabi, Driss Bouyyessef Rekab, another teacher who hasspent 15 years in jail, grants prison writing equal weight.He says:

I started writing my book in 1981, after myincarceration at the central prison in Kenitra.Initially, the task was difficult because the guardswere conducting frequent searches. I wrote as thinlyas possible on the thin paper that I treasured. Isqueezed words to the maximum to save paper. I couldthen fold it easily and get it out of jail ... Thingsbecame easier thereafter towards 1984. We managed toalert international opinion. In fact, they left usalone because of our external relations, especiallyAmnesty International and the League of Human Rightsin France. We were recognized as political prisoners,which gave us more freedom. As for Morocco, it playedthe game because we served as an exhibit window forhuman rights. (Tel Quel on line, Oct. 1, 2007; trans. mine)

Fakihani, another teacher who has spent 20 years in jail,notes a certain "paradox" characterizing this writingadventure: he says that in this profusion of prisonliterature,

former prisoners who were members of small Marxistorganizations have produced many more books, in Frenchand Arabic, that former member who were affiliatedwith other political parties of every stripe ...Former Marxists have certainly written many books.This would not have been the case if the authors hadcontinued to campaign in major political parties ...(The Corridor, p.72; trans. mine ).

However, such a statement may be refuted by the experience ofthe "walled-in officers" of Tazmamart, when one looks at thewealth of their writings. But the question remains begging:One still wonders about the real driving force behind the

8

profusion of jail writing among the prisoners of this periodof Moroccan history?

Yet, writing about life in jail does not come without risks.The act of writing or drawing in jail is consideredsubversive and is often censored. Prison-writing has alwaysplayed hide and seek with the prison authorities. As thenarrator of El Ouadie's Al Areess confesses to his mother:

I am writing you a letter you will never receive. I willwrite it in my memory because I lack pen and paper—what awretched deprivation! I have many reasons to convince youthat writing you now would be a grave imprudence on mypart even have I had the means. I do not want—was Idiscovered, God forbid—to spend the night under a rain ofabuse, of curses and gross insults, of beatings andrandom blows to my neck. I have already received today myshare of offerings by the faithful who watch over ourrepose in this unique refuge. We eat, sleep, drink, keepsilent, scream, bide our time, we cradle our hopes,praise God that we are still alive breathing the air ofour country… ("Letter one", p.17; trans. mine)

Although some scholars who have studied prison-literatureconsider the act of writing in jail as a natural humanreaction in response to threatening prison circumstances, butthe phenomenon cannot be generalized to all people in jail,since not every prisoner has succeeded in reporting about hisincarceration. Abdessalam El Ouazzani, a researcher in prisonliterature in Morocco, maintains that

Prison literature is clear evidence that there is in manan almost instantaneous reflex conservation that opposespunitive the prison Machine blinded by the dehumanizationand humiliation of individuals. This natural reactiondevelops and is consolidated as man adjusts to his newprison situation to try to save a little bit of hishumanity and respect for his dignity. To do this, theprison story introduces us to a world where it isimperative for the detainee to believe in certain values, if he wants to continue to live decently and hope one dayto become a free man. Among these important values, itshould be mentioned: the spirit of solidarity, dedication,

9

respect for the law, consultation, and negotiation...Survival, in particular, depends on communication.Liberation is not possible without communication. The mostinsightful detainee foresees from the outset theimportance of establishing and maintaining contact insideand outside prison. To speak is to exist, certainly;otherwise, it is death for sure. (El Wazzani, “Le Récitcarceral”; trans. mine)

Nonetheless, writing memory has played a key role in securingthe prisoners' survival and radical transformation.

On the other hand, beside serving as a channel ofcommunication, the practice of writing memory is sometimesturned into a weapon used to win liberation and to campaignagainst repressive regimes and human rights abuses. In fact,when the world started reading the smuggled letters, poemsand sketches by the Moroccan prisoners, which unveiledhorrible details about the secret torture centers ofTazmamart, Casablanca, Agdaz, , Kenitra, Sale, and Rabat,it was the beginning of the end of the prisoners' ordeals.

Prison Reality, the Apparatus, and Forms of Torture

In the texts studied here, there are three major topoi thatconstitute the focus of representation in Moroccan prisonmemory writing: The apparatus, torture, and the prisoner’smetamorphosis: First, as an institution, the prison servesas a repressive State apparatus used to enforce an unjustsystem of law. Its dilapidated buildings, narrow cells, darkcorridors, filthy lavatories, uninhabitable space, andhorrible jailors constitute –- in the eyes of the prisoners-- an affront to civilized humane values. Second, torture asthe common treatment of the prisoners is a “daily diet” thatcomes in different colors and styles, using differenttechnologies varying from the handcuffs to the electric prod.Third, the transformation (physical, psychological, andspiritual) that the prisoners undergo before they reachsalvation are central to the character development of thedetainees. In the literature produced about jail conditions

10

in Morocco, these topoi draw much of the narrator’s attentionand constitute major grievance issues.

In Fakihani’s Le Couloir, Rakab’s Under the Shelter of Lady Shafia,Raiss’s A ReturnTicket to Hell, and El Ouadie’s The Groom, thespace of the jail is a a purgatorial space inhabited bydamned souls in perpetual torture. The term “Hell,” which thedetainees use to refer to the institution seems to lackenough epistemic weight to carry the meaning of theexperience lived. The prison is usually depicted as anuncommon place that exists outside the norms of commonhumanity. The prisoners often shares their cells with rats,roaches, scorpions and snakes. Mohamed Raiss, describes hiscell thus:

Two months have elapsed since our arrival in thesesuffocating and filthy tombs, where the odours ofsweat, toilets and fresh cement mix and release ananimal smell that triggers vomiting… Summer passed byand the early signs of Winter approached, with its stormy rains and roaring winds… Oh! God! Howam I goingto stand this wintry period whereas I own only two wornout covers, a cement bed, and no woollen clothes? Howcould my body confront the stinging cold that glues theflesh to the backbone… (Ticket, p.91).

Certain jails, especially the desert penitentiaries, seem tobe worse than the Panopticon conceived by Jeremy Bentham inthe seventeenth century. In the case of Tazmamart, there isno plan of recuperating the prisoners after a fixedcorrection period; they are left in their hovels to die. InDerb Moulay Cherif in Casablanca, or the corridors oftorture in Kenitra Central, the tortured prisoners are leftin corners until they re-emerge from their unconscious state(cf. Rakab, El Ouadie and Fakihani). Sometimes they arecarried away to hospital when they reach a desperate stage(see Fakihani and El Ouadie). Those who are affectedpsychologically and lose their wits are left to theirterrifying hallucinations.

11

Raiss offers further peculiar details about the jailconditions in Tazmamart:

In the summer, our cells were like ovens; in the winter,breathing would become difficult and would be close toasphyxiation because of humidity….Six months passed… Oneof our colleagues started hallucinating and losing hisbrains. Darkness would multiply his fears … Hiscondition got worse because of his hallucinations. Hestarted believing that other people lived with him in hiscell. Sometimes, it was his mother, other times, his wifeand little daughter… Very often, he would cry out andrecite the Quran loudly… It was Mohamed Benshemsi…. Onenight, he cried for a long time and implored his mother tosave him ...The following morning when the guards openedhis cell, they found him dead….(Raiss, Ticket, p.97).

Raiss elaborates further:

The situation got worse… and fear of Jinns took widerproportions and was considered more seriously. Thequestion of Jinns and devils started becoming a confirmedcertainty, especially when the security men, who hadworked between eleven at night and four in the morning,said that they had seen groups of apparitions enterbuilding number 2, which was confirmed by the officer incharge of night shifts, who declared having sighted awoman in white dress and with camel hoofs, meaning AichaQendisha. Everyone in this cursed prison started seeingand imagining ghosts. The news reached the director whostopped his evening visits to Building no.2, as he wasknown for being superstitious. He refused to enter thebuilding out of fear of jinns and devils, but never fearedAllah. Anyway, why should he fear Him and he representedSatan himself?... (Ticket,117)

12

In the prison, nature’s elements have a direct impact on theprisoners. As Abdellatif Belakbir writes,

Inside our cells, there were three enemies: isolation,time, and darkness. We managed to vanquish the first two.But the latter one defeated us, and we found no power tobeat it. During the day, the cells would receive a traceof a faint light that would shyly infiltrate through theseventeen obscure holes on the wall … At night, darknesswas in multiple layers ("Diaries," Al Massae).

However, the nature of the prison apparatus seems todetermine the kind of treatment the prisoners receive. In theprisoners’ narratives, the Moroccan jail has a cultural soulthat is mediated by the guardians who watch over thereligious beliefs of the prisoners. The latter are oftenperceived as a bunch of horrid atheists. During their torturesessions, the detainees are quizzed first about theirreligious beliefs. Different responses are offered by theprisoners. In Tazmamart, no answers are expected because theprisoners are simply dropped in their hovels and left to rotslowly. In Kenitra or Derb Moulay Cherif, the jailorsinteract with the prisoners and require answers to theirquestions. In one of the torture scenes in AL Areess, theprisoner is quizzed by torturers thus:

I have not told you, dear mother, of this other tool oftorture they call here “le Milgue”. This infernal machinehas devoured my flesh.

As the punches rained on me, I cried unawares “myGod,” which made them multiply their violence, when themost voracious one of my torturers shouted: --Ah, well! You know then God? He mocked. Tell us thenwhere he is! Where?I did not find what to respond except the answer that youalways gave me, actually very seductive, that He iseverywhere! The worst got hold of me! This time theyliterally cried out sacrilege:--Do you know what you are saying here? He will be theninside the garbage heap too? God? Answer! Answer, then!

I did not answer. What would I have answered, even ifI wanted, yes or no!

13

The beating lasted as long as my torturers wished togrant me…. (p. 83; trans. mine)

In another letter, the Groom details another session oftorture during which electricity is used on his body. Itis worth quoting in full here:

When they lifted the pole into the emptiness, as ithappened, all my weight was carried by my handcuffs and myfeet tied with a rope, and it was there, dear Mother, tospeak truthfully, I understood I was being tortured. Isaid to myself, "Be a man," and I started to howl. Youknow how silent I am, how I hate noise, but the torturewas intense. They interrogated me between one slap andanotherand strokes of the whip about names, concepts, and bigwords, So-and-so, Such-and-such, democracy, socialism, classes,citizens, countries, revolution. Then they brought anengine that hummed and maneuvered near my skull, and I inthat situation, I could see nothing. I believed at firstthat this affair concerned an enormous fly. But the storyof a fly took wing when they placed the apparatus on myskull, my neck, my limbs, and I felt a shock and jolttravel through my entire body. I suddenly remembered thatI knew this jolt from childhood, the day I wasaccidentally shocked while playing, I remembered how youtook me in your arms when I came in tears looking for you.Here was electricity being delivered to my body longbefore reaching the countryside and the villages, eventhough I made no request to anyone. How can the governmentplead a lack of means—here they distribute electricity sogenerously without payment? (trans. S. Slyomovics, op.cit.)

In his “Letter Eleven, or the Day of the Parrot,” theGroom details another torture session:

… again I was properly beaten, while being suspended in theair, my back downward, my weight falling on my feet andwrists shackled around a bar attached to the ceiling. Afterthe slaps of the entrée, they took a piece of a dirtymopping cloth, imbibed with the most pestilent odor thatthe toilets of the whole country would conceal – a welldosed mixture of urine, of cold tobacco, of remains of

14

feces, and other filth from unknown origin – that theyapplied gently on the mouth and the nose, with thebounteous juice flowing on my face, to the extent that Inearly rendered my soul; and this was while two humandevils were busy caressing my soles with their whip… (p.39;trans. Mine)

All the narratives of memory indulge in detailing suchtorture scenes – sometimes, ad nauseum7. In this case, thegroom (El Ouadie) could defeat the violence of thetorturers and the excruciating pain only through a stoicdistancing of the self from the suffering body byresorting to biting sarcasm and dark humour.

The Metamorphosis of the Prisoner’sBody and Soul

Under the unfathomable pain of torture, the body of theprisoner undergoes a marked Metamorphosis: Jail narrativespresent horrifying scenes of torture in various colorscountered by stoic endurance of superhuman characteristics.Whether it is in Derb Mouly Chrif or in Kenitra or Tazmamart,torture practices seem to be common and repeat themselvesdaily. Such recipes as "The Parrot", the "plane", "thefalaqa, as lashes on the feet", the "electric drill", “themop”, “the plunge”, “the dog”, and “the bottle” tend to berecurrent practices and have direct transformative effects onthe physiology and psychology of the prisoner. Inflictingsuffering and humiliation are the aims of these practices.In addition, malnourishment, subhuman conditions, andisolation from the outside world tend to have dire effects onthe prisoners’ reassessment of their new identity andreasoning. The body can hardly resist the effects of dailypersecution:

Our condition got worse and our health deteriorated andour bodies emaciated as the skin got glued to the bone.Our sight started evoking disgust and the beauty that Godhas created was being destroyed by humans; are humans

7 See AbdelAziz Mourid, On Affame bien les rats (Casablanca : Tarik, 2010)

15

permitted to mess up what God has created?… (Raiss, Ticket,p. 106)

With physiological deterioration and the feeling ofhelplessness, there comes the religious metamorphosis of thedetainee and his search for new meanings for his existence.God is evoked as the ultimate and fairest judge, Who isimplored to intervene to save the prisoner. A sense offatalism dominates his consciousness.

Peeping through the keyhole of his cell, Mohamed Raiss isshocked to see his comrade Abdellatif Belakbir in a terribleshape, a clear consequence of the prison conditions:

Through the keyhole, I kept an eye on my companions inmisery, walking past one after the other: AbdellatifBelakbir, the captain who used to be a big man who used towalk in a sporty proud manner and was always neat, is nowtreading in filthy tatters. In his curved posture, hedragged his sick legs affected by rheumatism. His skeletalbody was exhausted by sickness. He who had cultivatedphysical perfection for years! When he reached the gateof the building, the light of the sun blinded him becausehe had not seen it since he had arrived into the prison….He was overwhelmed by a feeling of liberty, so he stumbledand fell to the ground. Then he kneeled in a prayer toAllah, in tears. He addressed Allah in a clear voice: "Oh,God of the universe! I implore your mercy and forgiveness.You alone are capable of saving me from the hands of thetyrants. You are my God, my Master; I implore yourblessing and forgiveness. The guards pulled him up withcruelty, so he walked away swaying like a pendulum…"(Ticket, pp. 122-23)

The physiological transformation of the prisoner then leadsto other kinds of transformations. He delves into assessmentsof his identity, his political beliefs, religiousorientations, emotions towards relatives, and his generalattitude towards the world and humanity at large. Theprisoner goes through a crisis that leads him to a kind ofconversion into a different system of thought. He is facedwith a reality of loss: he has lost his job, his wife, or

16

girlfriend, family, his future, and is standing alone facingannihilation. The prisoner is, therefore, required to reorderhis life, submit to a new system of rules that seem morehumane to him, and render his survival dependent on a systemthat is – paradoxically -- bent on his destruction. He goesthrough a stage of self-negation and a search for a new self-definition. Meditating his fate, Raiss says :

Personally, I felt alien to myself and to Tazmamart. I didnot understand it, and could not find a place for myselfin the world. I became a different person with the passingof time. Often I would forget the person I was and couldnot succeed in imagining the kind of person I was going tobe… (Ticket, p.186).

These thoughts lead the prisoner to commit himself to a newpath of thought, a different mode of character building, tobe a better citizen. In a situation reminiscent of theconditions of the shipwrecked Robinson Crusoe on his island,Mohamed Raiss asserts: "I was thinking about my life andwould judge myself harshly. I appreciated this isolationwithout which I would not have meditated about my life andrecalled its details. I swore that I would never commit anysins after my liberation, and I cultivated inside me a blindpiety; that I would live my life in total rectitude…."(Ticket, p.105). When asked whether the prison had changed him,Rekab, a declared radical intellectual, replied:

I was Marxist-Leninist when I entered prison. In fact,there was a lot of sectarianism in our view of things.Whoever thought differently from us was -– a least, anadversary -- at worst, an enemy. I have taken distancefrom these deviations and the orders of the organizationthe day when, still in prison, I became conscious of thefact that I would be participating in the isolation ofthose who thought differently from me. I said to myself:“how would I underestimate my own comrades?” Throughquestioning my sectarian behaviour, I became more‘democratic’…. Without becoming anti-Marxist (for Ibelieve that each person has the right of speech), Inoticed that I had a problem with the methods used….(“Interview”)

17

This shift in attitude towards a pre-jail self is significantin the sense that it works as a restructuring strategy thathelps fight annihilation and secure integration into thedominant order of things. The religious transformation inparticular puts the prisoner on the path of expiation,seeking forgiveness (whether divine, Royal, or public), andultimate salvation. Prisoners often draft letters requestingpardon from the King; something they would hardly thing ofdoing before their incarceration. Religiosity grants a newequilibrium and helps fight dementia.

Once, a prisoner called out from his cell:

Dear fiends, what I am going to say to you may soundirrational, but don't think I am crazy, I am in my fullreasoning capability; believe me I am not insane. Last night, two clergymen visited me…,one was old with a white beard and the second was young andresembled an angel carrying a Bible in his hand. Aftersaying hello, they invited me to convert to Christianity.I refused telling them I am a Muslim and I will be aMuslim until I die. The old man threatened me with death,and I told him I would rather die a Muslim…(cit. in Raiss,Ticket, p. 114)

Such a loud confession undoubtedly is a direct response tothe accusations of atheism. Evoking religiosity in prisonbecomes a process of constructing a new identity that is moreacceptable in the eyes of the outside world. Religiositybecomes also a driving force inside the prison, shapingconsciousness, endowing the prisoners with a new mission (ora “calling” à la Max Weber8), urging them to organizevarious daily activities to cultivate the world of thespirit. They try to prove to themselves that they are moreMuslim than the system that has unjustly incarcerated them.Raiss confesses his own metamorphosis:

8 Capitalism and the Protestant Ethic

18

I never had the conviction of the believer nor the passionof the lottery player nor the courage of the adventurernor the love of the risk-taking of the hunter of tigers.On the contrary, I was among the defenders of laziness.But a sickening stubbornness pushed me to throw thegauntlet and challenge death, which had sworn to kill us,one after the other, with no compassion or pity. This iswhy I was among those who called for organizing ourselvesand setting up a schedule that would be respected byeverybody….(Ticket, p. 96)

Those prisoners who found Allah in Tazmamart mobilized theothers and started organizing collective sessions of languagelearning, debating, music, and especially, reading the Quranand discussing religious matters. Raiss explains further:

We decided to furnish our unhappy time, despite the refusalof some of us to set a strict schedule preferring chattingto reading the Quran or learning foreign languages. Inorder to satisfy everybody's wishes, we reserved some emptyhours to those who would like to chat only. Holy Fridaywas reserved for delving into religious and national topicsand the collective reading of the Quran. As for Sunday, wereserved it for relaxation; each one of us would sing ortell stories…(Ticket, p.97)

Paradoxically, the prison becomes even perceived as the rightplace for salvation, as the right path to a life devoid ofsin. Another prisoner is reported as saying: "For me,Tazmamart represents a school where I learnt thinking,endurance and acceptance of fate. Anyway, as long as I amhere, I won't commit any sins that tempt us in the outsideworld, such as pleasures, prohibitions, and Satanic deeds…"(cit. Raiss, Ticket, p. 169). The holy book becomes a powerfultool to restructure behaviour and create order in theprisoners’ life. Religion is turned into a protecting shieldagainst a hostile surrounding, the torturers who areperceived as satanic characters, and the malevolent world ofJinns and goblins roaming in darkness. Colonel AbdellatifBenlakbir, in his diaries, illustrates this point in a longdiary entry that is worth citing:

19

Our major concern in the jail was to trick time and combatit. Time was a voracious enemy; it was devouring us slowlywithout getting tired…. So we were obliged to work harderto create ways of confronting it sometimes and ignoring itother times; or living along with it other times. The guard“Bravo Delta” remained faithful to his promise and broughtme a copy the Quran as promised. It was a small book ofnine centimeters by seven. I was so happy with it as I hadnever been with any present. I informed my companions ofthis news and it was a feast day. So we organized thingsamong ourselves quickly; we established a list of those whowould want to participate in the memorizing program sixdays a week, and who would be able to memorize the eighthof a Hizb (chapter) every week, or half of it, or just fiveverses. Keeping ourselves busy reading the Quran would giveus the best help in whiling the time away, and the bestsource for tranquility and serenity. Every new verse thatwe used to learn would open up for us treasures and ahidden wealth that we had never imagined at the time of ourblind ignorance. We found in the Quran what calmed theminds among us, pacified the hearts, and fed the spirits.It was a surprise that we managed to memorize with muchease in considering our miserable condition and theterrible food that we suffered from. The miracle gotcomplete when most of the detainees started making effortsto render the Quran their guidance and model for conduct.The divine word revived dead beliefs in us; we who hadconcerned ourselves with worldly matters until we abandonedfaith or nearly so. It also revived in us every positivemode of conduct that the prison and isolation killed in us.We noted how the Quran would teach us endurance, resistanceand hard work, not dependency or submission or such thingsthat the Westerners accuse us of untruthfully. The ethicsof the Quran penetrated our spirits and cleansed them fromall marks of envy, lying, and debauchery. The comradeswillingly gave up their previous behavior, so one would nolonger hear in the corridors the sound of conflicts orabuse; not even a single nasty word. Even those fewcomrades who used to shout openly their atheism startedgetting the meanings of the Quran slowly touch the stringsof their hearts; they started being silent, therebyallowing their comrades who wished to recite and memorizeverses. Then with time, their silence turned intolistening, then appreciation, then interest, and thendesire to participate in the memorizing sessions…. Soon,the sessions of memorizing became meetings that everybody

20

looked forward to impatiently…. We felt that we were likedead people and that the Quran revived us. We found in itthe best support and aid in our tragedy…. ("Diaries", p.6)

It is as if the prisoners have undergone a new rebirth, beingdriven by a desire to start their life from scratch; with aclean slate. Their spirituality seems to lead them even downthe path of sanctity and sainthood.

It must be noted, however, that such a religiousconsciousness does not come as a surprise, especially amongthe military officers at Tazmamart, which must not beconsidered an arbitrary choice on their part. As notedearlier, the radical prisoners in city jails (such as Laabi,Fakihani, Rekab, and their comrades) tend to confess to noreligious conversion or a finding of Allah in jail. Theirtransformation falls within the framework of a revisionistideology offering a total re-evaluation of the failedrevolutionary project of their Organization and the possiblepitfalls as active members in it. Their new worldview ismore marked by a secular universalistic humanism structuredby a more encompassing philosophy of human rights. AbdellatifLaabi talks of his metamorphosis in jail thus: "I amdiscovering more and more goodness. The whole wealth of thisvirtue. To listen, to understand, to love, to sympathize, tograsp the meaning of movement instead of the moment, totalityinstead of the isolated element. I re-learn about humans,history, and the world. How much I dream of this spring offraternity, of love, of liberty….”(Chroniques, p. 45). Inanother letter to his wife, Laabi even evokes the mysticalexperience of Al Hallaj, Rabiaa Al Adawyya, and Theresed’Avila, renowned mystics of Islam and Christianity as modelsof inspiration for universal love and the fusion of selves9.

Like Colonel Belakbir, Mohamed Raiss reports on the powerof religiosity in a similar vein:

9 See letter of Sept 22, 1973, Chroniques, p. 32.

21

The Quran was our constitution and the Hadeeth our guidebook in ahealthy life marked by mutual respect and peace of mind. We wereneither fundamentalists nor orthodox, but we used to provide allthe efforts we could to pay our dues in prayer, and to followthe path of our praiseworthy religion. Unfortunately, that wasnot the tendency of our comrades although they had memorized theQuran well better than us. Memorizing was not enough; there mustbe practice and getting inspiration from the verses in ourrelationships. Before our imprisonment, we used to live a lifefull of all sins, except El Maghouti, who used to pray regularlysince his childhood, and never tasted the smell of alcohol.

In Tazmamart, faith was necessary; in it we improvedourselves and our behavior, because Allah is compassionate andforgiving, provided that the atonement is final.

In Tazmamart, I learnt the meaning of our pitfalls;indeed, during a crisis the human can also see himself in aninterior mirror. I became conscious of the fact that I hadbeen living in darkness even while the sun was inundating mewith its light. I used to seek futile pleasures, with analienated will, facing treacherous satanic temptations, headingfor spiritual destruction. My sole strength in Tazmamart was myfull trust in Allah, waiting for His divine miracle, and surethat my salvation was in His hands alone.… He is the Creator…and I am a believer in that…." (Ticket, p. 150)

However, there were some prisoners whose veering towardsspirituality was extreme, and their religious practiceexcessive; they ended up in fatal conditions. In Raiss’sbook, the story of the prisoner Hamid Bendourou is telling.He says that

22

In March 1991, Captain Hamid Bendourou died after long yearsof dementia… He had willingly isolated himself, spending histime reading, intoning the Quran and praying…. He forfeitedhis fate to Allah, thinking of the Day of Judgment alone. Hecontinued fasting daily except on religious holidays, fromthe day he arrived in the jail until he died, hoping forpurifying his soul, despite the advice of his comrades whohad asked him to stop fasting because it had perniciousconsequences on his health. He refused to listen to themsaying that he wanted to be like God’s prophet David…. Hespent most of his time lying flat on the ground withoutcovers or a pillow. He started hallucinating thinking thathis cell was full of spying equipment… Worse still, heimagined somebody walking on the roof distributing medicationto the prisoners, so he would shout asking for his share….(cit. Raiss, Ticket, p. 187)

The prisoners’ return to a more Islamic way of life in jailrequired a certain balance in their practice; any excessiveorthodox practice was fatal – though in some extreme cases inthe history of saints in Islam, the excessive cultivation ofthe spirit at the expense of the body that may lead to itsdestruction was often recommended.

Women and Religiosity in Captivity

The role of religion in captivity seems to be unsurpassed byno other motif, except by the power of women’s presence inproviding the prisoners with a symbolic hope in the futureand a firm incentive to maintain the struggle for survivaluntil the end. The figure of the woman as a mother, a wife,a daughter, or a lover becomes sometimes a more powerfulmotif than that of religion, especially among the secularprisoners of city jails (here I am referring mainly to theradical group – Laabi, Fakihani, Rekab, and El Ouadie),although this could sometimes apply to some of the prisonersof the desert prison Tazmamart as well.

Like religiosity, women have played a key role in theprisoner's strife and transformation. In most cases, wheresurvival has been crowned with success and liberation, women

23

have acted as a crucial support to the prisoners in theirordeal to such an extent that the prisoners seem to havesurvived mostly due to their beloved women, about whom theywould be thinking day and night. The prisoner would talk tohis woman in absentia, write her poems, and send herimaginary long letters. Whether it is Jocelyn for Laabi orKhadija for Raiss, or Lucyl for Rekab, thewoman/wife/daughter motif was central to their sterile jailuniverse. Laabi would write letters to his wife, hisdaughter, and would confess his superior love for the latter.He writes: “Je me suis habitué à l’espace étriqué de macellule. J’ai disposé ton portrait sur l’étagère en haut.Ainsi tu surveilles tout ce que je fais, me couvres de taprésence. Au mur, à côté de moi, j’ai collé une photo deQods, celle où elle a des coquettes…Son sourire éclairematériellement ma chamber…” (Chroniques, 159). In a differentletter, he goes on to say: “Je suis tout plein de toi, decette tendresse don tu m’as vigoureusement traversé. C’estprodigieux de t’aimer, avec passion et sérénité, aveccertitude heureuse…. Vivre, espérer, lutter, c’estindivisible. L’exil ne peut pas être une blessure béante quisuppure, infectant le cœur et les yeux…”(p.188). In contrast,many of those who were abandoned by their wives because oftheir imprisonment easily lost their wits and their battlefor survival in jail. Laabi had the walls of his cell coveredwith his wife's and daughter's pictures. He does not mentionthat of his son. Raiss and Hachad had to rely on theirwives to get their condition known to the outside world.Raiss’s daughter got interviewed on French radio and madeTazmamart known to the world. She was audacious enough toevade the king’s security and get close to the king at DarSalam golf course and talk to him about her father’s case.Rekab was kept informed of his wife’s travels to Europe andmovements giving him hope of international human rights NGOsintervening on his behalf. Taouil, whose wife was American,was the first prisoner of Tazmamart to be talked about in theUS Congress, due to the campaign launched by his wifeTouria/Nancy. The consequent international pressure on theMoroccan government led to Taouil’s more relaxed treatment in

24

Tazmamart, which created much jealousy among the detainees,to such an extent that Raiss told his comrades once that hadthey all been married to American women, Tazmamart would nothave existed! (Raiss, Ticket, p.112). Not unlike Raiss whoevokes both women and foreign help in contributing directlyto the liberation of the prisoners, Bouessef Rekab concludeshis Under the Shade of Lalla Shafia by a strong evocation ofboth factors thus:

We managed to knit strong relations of friendship withpeople abroad (in Western Europe, Canada, America),especially members of Amnesty International. If wewere breathing the perfume of liberty the way we werebreathing the rotten air of prison routine, it wasmostly thanks to those distant friends who were sendingus their moral and material support, as well as thanksto our families, mothers, sisters and some wives whostood fast in their care and solidarity…(p. 237; trans.Mine)

Liberation as a Gift from Allah

When liberation came, it was perceived as a gift from Allah,Who had intervened on behalf of the prisoners. Raiss wasliberated by royal amnesty in 1991, after having spent 18years and 39 days in Tazmamart. Out of 58 officers who hadbeen transferred there in August 1973, only 28 remained alivewhen they were freed on September 15, 1991 (see Raiss, Ticket,p. 203-4). Raiss attributes his liberation to a divineintervention. One day after their departure from Tazmamart,the prisoners arrive at Ribat Al-Khair (ex-Ahermemou cadetsschools from where the 1971 Skhirat putschists started) andare given proper food and accommodation as if in a hotel.Raiss is overwhelmed by happiness: He recalls: “After fouro’clock, they brought me a piece of bread, a boiled egg, anda cup of tea. After I prayed and read some Quran, I thankedAllah a lot because He saved me from the prison and showeredme with His bounties…” (p. 209). Raiss’s reunion with hiswife is also considered a reward for their firm belief inGod’s ultimate intervention:

25

We remained looking at each other and crying. She keptholding my face between her hands, looking at medeeply, and kissing me profusely on my forehead andcheeks… Then she pressed hard on my hands and kissed themmany times, murmuring thanks to Allah because He hasanswered her plea and granted her what she had requested.I held her tight to my bosom and told her gently: “enoughof tears, everything is over now, there won’t be anynightmare after today. Thank Allah for bringing us backtogether after this long separation.” She replied: “Ihave prayed to God for two decades and implored His Gloryto bless us with this day. At last He answered ourplea….” (Ticket, p. 232).

In the case of the member of Ila Alamam, Fakihani, he doesnot attribute his liberation to a direct divine intervention;but rather to his pious father who, as a deeply religiousman, would implore God whenever he would think of his son:“After my leaving prison, he (his father) told me that everytime he psalmodied the Quran and reached the chapter on(prophet) Joseph, he would think of me – this prophet who wasunjustly jailed. My father would address God for everything…”(Le Couloir, p. 129).

The Meaning of Turning Religious in Captivity

Thus the phenomenon of narrating memory and cultivatingreligiosity in prison invites a number of interpretations.Assuming that the prisoners’ choice to narrate theirexperiences and to turn to religion assume pragmatic reasons;i.e., to maintain survival, to organize life in jail, tohelp one cultivate faith in the future, to reconcile one tooneself, but mostly to ensure better integration in theafter-jail life, we are invited to look deeper into thepsychological, social, and political explanations of thephenomenon. Such an interpretation could even be pushedfurther to link it to the general drive of the State,penalizing citizen for not being religious enough or forhaving deserted religion for secular consciousness andpolitics. We have seen how during the torture scenes, theissue of the existence of God was evoked many times. As Rekab

26

recalls (just like El Ouadie), he is interrogated by thetorturer thus:

--Stand up you... filthy atheist!He stood him against the wall and started lashing at him.--You do not believe in Allah, do you? Then you will tellme where Allah is, you atheist! And I will not stophitting you until you give me the correct answer!--Allah exists in the bosoms of the believers!--What? You have lodged him there, you filthy! Do youthink the hearts of the believers are wide enough forAllah to exist there?--Allah is everywhere...! (announced the prisoner)--Is that so? Even in the junk box?....... (Rekab, p. 138)

Then the prisoner went silent because he knew that thetorturer would not be happy with any answer. He went onbeating him until his feet turned blue and bloody pieces ofmeat! (p. 138)

In the life of the prisoners, religiosity intervenes totransform the prison space into a cultural universe that theprisoner re-appropriates. This intervention posits theprisoners in counter-opposition to the jailors, their bosses,and their universe as representatives of a satanic non-Muslimworld, where un-Islamic practices of torture and sadistictreatment are performed daily. The prisoner inverses thebinary categories of the equation of the prison vs. the freeworld (normal/abnormal; moral/immoral; human/inhuman) to hisown advantage and tries to become the universal norm ofhumaneness, rectitude and absolute sensibility. Accordingly,the prisoners are no longer the criminals in jail, but theinnocent individuals who are convinced of the injustice theyare subjected to, and who deserve God's intervention to savethem. There is only God who can set them apart from a widelycruel and unjust world outside the wall of the jail; theyclamor their innocence and call upon God to intervene toliberate them and grant them their human rights. But adoptinga sincere religious worldview only confirms a strong desireto create a new alliance with the system that has initiallyexcluded them and put them behind bars.

27

The prison world is also a microcosm of the society outside.In the case of Tazmamart, one reads even a representation ofall the ethnic groups that make up the Moroccan society atlarge. As Raiss notes,

Among us, there were good and bad people, violent onesand passive ones. There were also optimists who wouldbelieve in everything and would expect a certainsurprise, or a miracle… And there were pessimists whowere not expecting anything and did not believe inanything; and there were those who were quiet by natureand would not talk, preferring not to waste their energytalking. May be they were the worst losers because oftheir limited vision. In counterpart, there were thosewho talked a lot and would spend time inside the prison.And there were the pious believers who would spend theirnight and day in prayer invoking Allah and alwaysreading the Koran. The lazy ones were few among us. Themajority was rebellious and would get into scuffles withthe guards who had named them 'hotheads'. Some of uswere those who were very calm and of a quiet nature, andwho would prefer to solve problems through dialog… Theothers, who were radical extremists, who preferredconfrontation and I was unfortunately one of them… Theprisoners’ ethnic features were varied: black, mulatto,white, and blond. The majority was from the countrysideand the minority from the city, but the latter wasdominant and held decision-making powers regarding theconcerns of the community. Those from Arab origin weremore numerous than those from Berber origin. There were also among usyoung people lacking experience and older people who had beenbattered by life. The age difference was a cause formuch disagreement about organizational or collectivedecisions, and instilled a lack of trust among us…(Ticket, p. 95; trans. mine)

In such a diverse microcosm, the religiosity preached bynewborn-Muslim prisoners draws attention to the rise ofreligiosity in the society outside the jail and thepossibility of a new cultural practice sweeping the societyat large filtering into the jail space. As part of the State

28

apparatuses that watch over the rectitude of subjects througha process of punish to discipline, prisons becometechnologies to instil and reinstate religious conduct.Sometimes, when some prisoners leave the jail, they arereligiously more radical than many of their friends orrelatives outside. The prison experience often plays animportant role in the radicalization of religious views. Inthis sense, the jail space is re-appropriated and turned intoa religious centre like the Zawya, the mosque or the shrine,where religious consciousness is cultivated. But this veeringtowards a non-secular and more religious consciousness andpolitical worldview was a sort of a forecast of morereligious radicalisation that was going to submerge theMoroccan society and the Muslim world for the decades to come– either in the form of an Islamic revolution in the MiddleEast, the Arab Spring, or the coming to power of the Islamistparties and the thriving of radical Islam and Jihadipolitics.

Bibliography

Al Qurtobi, Miloud. Sareeru Al Maout [Death Bed]. 2002.(In Arabic).

Belakbir, Abdellatif. "Diaries." (in Arabic). Al Massae, no. 330, Oct.10, 2007

Benjalloun, Tahar. Cette aveuglante absence of lumière. Paris : Seuil, 2001.

------------------. This Blinding Absence of Light. Trans. Linda Coverdale.London: Penguin, 2005.

Bennouna, Mehdi. Heros sans gloire: Echec d'une revolution, 1963 – 1973.Casablanca : Tarik, 2002.

Belakbir, Abdellatif. "Diaries". in Al Massae, n. 299, Sept. 4, 2007(In Arabic).

Boer, de Sietske. Anneés de plomb : Chronique d’une famille marocaine. Trans.Daniel Cunin. Casablanca: Le Fennec, 2005.

Chaoui, Abdelkader. Assahatu Asharqiyyah (in Arabic). Casablanca : LeFennec, 1999.

29

Daoud, Zakya. Feminisme et Politique au Maghreb. Casablanca : Eddif, 1996.

El Bouih, Fatna. Une Femme nommée Rachid. Trans. Francis Gouin.Casablanca : Le Fennec, 2000.

El Ouadie, Salah. Le Marié. Trans. Abdelhadi Idriss. Casablanca:Tarik, 2002.

El Ouazzani, Abdesselam "Le Récit carcéral: Le discours de lacontrainte redoublée." Colloque IER “Ecrits de la détention politique”(Rabat : May 20, 2004). Web.

Errahoui, Mohammed. Mouroirs : Chronique d’une disparition forcée. Temara : PrintColors, 2008.

Fakihani, Abdelfattah. Le Couloir : Bribes de vérité sur les années de plomb.Casablanca: Tarik, 2005.

Jamai, Khalid. Présumés Coupables. Casablanca : Tarik, 2003.

Kabbaj, Abdelghani. Marrakech 84 : La torture continue… Marrakech :Edition Al Afak Al Maghribia, 2007.

Laabi, Abdellatif. Chroniques de la citadelle d'exil. 1978. Paris: la Différence,2005.

Laabi, Abdellatif. Chemin des ordalies. '82. Trans. Trial by Fire. 2005

Lachkar, M’hamed. Courbis : Mon chemin vers la verité et le pardon. Rabat : EditionsSaad Ouarzasi, 2010.

Marzouki, A. Tazmamart, Cellule 10. Casablanca: Tarik, 2000.

Mdidech, Jaouad. La Chambre noire. Casablanca : Eddif, 2002.

Mouride, A. On Affame bien les rats. 2000.

Oufkir, Fatema. Les Jardins du roi. Paris : Lafon, 2000.

Oufkir, Malika et Michelle Fitoussi. La Prisonnière. Paris : Lafon : 1999.

------------. Stolen Lives. Trans. Ros Schwartz. New York : Miramax, 2001.

Raiss, Mohamed. Tadhkirat dhahaab wa Iyyaab Ila Al Jaheem : Moudhakkirat

30

Mohamed Erraiss (in Arabic). Trans. A. Jamahiri. Casablanca : DarAnnashr,

2001.

Rekab, Bouyessef Driss. Sous l'ombre de Lalla Shafia. Trans. A. Chaoui.Casablanca:

Tarik, 2002.

------------------- Tahta Dilali Lalla Shafia (in Arabic). Trans. A.Shaoui. Casablanca:

Tarik, 2002.

-------------. La Tyrannie ordinaire : Lettres de prison. Casablanca :Tarik, 2005.

----------. “Inerview” in Tel Quel on line, Oct. 1, 2007.

Saoudi, Noureddine. Femmes – Prisons: Parcours Croisées. Casablanca : Najah Al Jadidda, 2001.

Sarhane, Abdelhak. Kabazal: Les Emmurés de Tzmamart. Casablanca: Tarik,2003.

Serfaty, Abraham et Christine Daure. La Mémoire de l'autre. Casablanca :Tarik,

2002.

Slyomovics, Susan. " Review” of Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir andMichele

Fitoussi. The Boston Review, December 2001/January 2002.

----------------------. The Performance of Human Rights in Morocco.Philadelphia,

PA: U Penn P, 2005.

31