Acknowledgements
Introduction
Agency and Agent Eve(s)
Moroccan Postcolonial Feminism
Women’s Activism in the Pre- and Post-Arab Spring Era
Organization of the Monograph
Chapter 1. A historical/ theoretical framework
Postcolonialism: Theorizing Marginalized Subjects and their Literature
Postcolonial Feminism: Theorizing Third World Feminism
Beyond Postcolonialism: The 2011 Arab Spring and its Brand of Feminism
Chapter 2. Fatima Mernissi and Leila Abouzeid: Colonialism/Postcolonialism and Women’s Agency in Morocco
Fatima Mernissi’s Dreams of Trespass: Between Storytelling and Memory
From Scheherazade to Moroccan Women Storytellers: The Liberating Power of Words
Memory, Nostalgia and the Women in the Harem
Leila Abouzeid’s the Last Chapter: Between Postcolonial Discourse and Women’s Lives in Independent Morocco
The Interplay of the Colonial, Religious, and Feminist Discourses in the Last Chapter
The Impact of Postcolonial Discourse on One Woman’s Quest for a Modern Identity
Conclusion
Chapter 3. Laila Lalami and Najat El Hachmi: Women and Agency in Postcolonial (Diasporic) Patriarchies
Laila Lalami’s Secret Son: Women and Patriarchy
The Males in Question
The Younger Generation of Women
Najat El Hachmi’s The Last Patriarch: A Defeat of Patriarchy
Mimoun: The Archetypal Patriarch
Contesting Patriarchy: The Daughter and Narrator
Conclusion
Chapter 4. Aicha Ech-Channa’s Testimonial Literature: Disadvantageous Children and Women’s Agency in Pre- and Post-Arab Spring Era
Ech-Channa’s Miseria: Narrating Illegitimate Children’s Stories and Minor Girls’ Traumatic Sexual Experiences in Pre-Arab Spring Morocco
Minor Girls Surviving Rape in a Pre-Arab Spring Society
Ech-Channa’s À Hautes Voix : Illegitimate Female Sexuality Articulated Within a Post-Arab Spring Society
Single mothers: Testimonial Accounts of Rape and Resistance Voiced in the Post-Arab Spring Era
Post-Arab Spring Accounts Concerning False Promises of Marriage and Patriarchal Sexual Morality
The Female Scholar’s Testimony
Conclusion
Conclusion
Mernissi’s and Abouzeid’s Precolonial and Postcolonial Version of Women’s Agency
Lalami’s and El Hachmi’s Postcolonial Revolutionary Women and the Dying Moroccan Patriarchs
Ech-Channa’s Agency in Revealing Intimate Testimonies on Female Sexuality in a Pre-and Post-Arab Spring Era
Proposals for Future Women Writers
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Fatimaezzahra Abid is a scholar of postcolonial literature, Maghrebi studies, and gender studies. Her research examines women’s literary activism and postcolonial feminism in Moroccan women’s narratives, with a focus on amplifying underrepresented voices in North African and Islamic contexts. She has published on topics including postcolonial cultural narratives, women’s literature and social activism, identity politics, English language teaching (ELT) in Morocco, and translation studies.
