“I do everything so that this woman that I film, I do not show her as a victim, and I try to give voice to all the women who have never had the right to free their speech.“.
The director, Asmae El Moudir, shares her view on the current place of women in Morocco. His film “The mother of all lies” was released in theaters on February 28.
Moroccan women are free
According to Asmae El Moudirbeing a woman in Morocco today, it is power and it represents freedom. She compares it with the position her grandmother had, who had been married very young. Moreover, his mother also lived lots of obstacles : “Me, today, I find myself free!“. Since then, the law has changed in Morocco in favor of women. For this film, the director began by questioning the lack of memories, the lack of images and memory that weighed on Moroccan families. Concerning her personal experience , she and her family created her own archives for seven years. It was through miniature sets that she wanted to tell the story of the years of lead for example or the strike of the baguette which was a very traumatic event for some. Over time, speech was freed and the films began to tell stories in order to reclaim this past.
“Sometimes we think that men are treated better than women. But I haven’t experienced that” she says. When she was younger, her father and brother helped. They prepared food or did the dishes with her mother. Asmae El Moudir grew up in a house where there was no difference between women and men. “Women in Morocco today are free, except when they don’t want to be.” she says. According to the director, unlike her grandmother’s time, now the marriage is a choice. She herself is not married, and yet no one in her family asks her about this situation. However, she is still aware that in certain families the question is asked, and it puts pressure : “I think it’s unfair to push a woman to look for or find a husband…“.
Advances in women’s rights
“I believe that this is very much what we are experiencing in Morocco today.” declares Asmae El Moudir. According to her, Morocco has found a certain balance between women and men, where everyone has their rights. However, there would still be things to resolve: “In all Arab or African countries, or even abroad, there are things to improve in the law“. She takes the example of the fact that a divorced woman cannot travel with her children. It is a subject that touches her enormously and the director hopes that one day, if a woman has a husband who has left and does not participate not financially for the children, that she can travel freely with her children.
Concerning the backlash, Asmae El Mudir does not see herself going backwards, in view of all the positive developments that Morocco has experienced in relation to women. Years of battles who left their mark on her when she was younger. Moroccan laws change from day to day in favor of women. She talks about the fact that she now feels free to be able to go out in the evening, although you still have to be careful: “You choose when you want to go out, when do you want to stay at home“. It is the same for the choice of wearing the veil or even the skirt. It remains necessary, now, to be careful not to go back, but rather to focus on the future as Asmae El Moudir wishes.