A frustrating week in Tiznit

We’ve just got back to our house in the village after another rather frustrating week in Tiznit. After the 1st disastrous meeting with the women last Thursday we had a very constructive meeting with Brahim (one of the members of AIDECO) to discuss our proposals for the treatment of the water from the communal washing area and then another disastrous meeting with the women on Saturday. This time Maggie was present so she was able to explain things in Tashleheet and it started off well with just a few women. Maggie explained the sand filter system we’re proposing and they seemed to understand and said it was a very good idea, but then some more women turned up and it all kicked off again!

For some reason they were angry that we had called a meeting and said that we should have been having a meeting with everyone in the village including AIDECO to make decisions like this. Maggie tried to explain that we just wanted to hear their views and ideas and that nothing was going to be decided in the meeting but there were a lot of raised voices and then one woman tried to get everyone to leave. A few stayed behind and ate the cake we’d baked for them and apologised for the others but it left us feeling quite disillusioned about what we’re doing here. We thought we were doing a good thing by encouraging community participation in the project and consulting the women about a part of the project that will directly affect them but it seems that giving opinions is something that women don’t do in Moroccan society. They don’t want to be seen to be making decisions because that’s for the men to do. I’m still trying to work out the role of women in Moroccan society, you think you have it sussed and then something like that happens and you’re back to square one.

So on Monday we went to Tiznit in the hope that we would be able to discuss our ideas for the washing area with Mostapha and Hassan at the DPA and maybe find someone who knows about sand filters and could tell us whether our proposals would work or not. We thought being in our office at the DPA we’d have plenty of time to write the report for this part of the project but it didn’t really go according to plan. There were people that Mostapha wanted to introduce us to and things he wanted to talk about which had nothing to do with the project. Despite all the distractions we did get a good chunk of the report done and organised a very interesting site visit. There is a local architect called Salima Naji who Mostapha put us in touch with when we first got here. Last time we were in Tiznit she wasn’t around but this time she phoned us to say that again she was not in Tiznit but that her assistant could show us round and talk to us about the project she is working on in the centre of Tiznit. It is a project to redevelop the ruined Kasbah (a fortified area in the town centre) into an exhibition centre, museum and gardens. We went to look round the site - not a hard hat to be seen! The site office was a tent and there were a group of men lifting cement up to a higher level using a bucket on a pulley system. We climbed up a very rickety ladder to get a better look. They were using traditional mud bricks for much of the new structure and we saw freshly made bricks baking in the sun. Salima’s French assistant told us how they keep coming across parts of the town’s old drainage system and things like grain silos as they are excavating. Salima sounds like quite an inspiration! She’s a successful Moroccan woman, trained to be an architect in france, married a French man and now has her own practice in southern Morocco working on many heritage projects like the Kasbah. Not only that she is a very welcoming and friendly person and despite her evidently elevated status, has taken the time to be interesting in our work. We’re really hoping to meet her next time we’re all in Tiznit. This is her website if anyone’s interested: www.salimanaji.org.