HENAN HARIT

Morocco- The Moroccans watched the theatre play for the first time last week. The play reflects the hidden form of violence and how women suffer from it. The theatre play also calls on women to show their courageous stance and reactions in society.

Naima Zaitan, the director of the theatre play, draws attention to the challenges faced by women in the theatre play. We spoke to Moroccan director Naima Zaitan about the theatre play.

The theatre play draws attention to violence

“Mask” calls for the removal of masks imposing certain traditions on women, Naima Zaitan said, “These masks vary in shape and color. Written by a group of male and female writers, the play is about the challenges faced by women throughout their lives. It highlights many women’s issues such as the reasons why they have to leave school, child marriage, divorce, sexual abuse against them, violence. We can no longer tolerate these issues and we should show our attitude against them.”

“Everyone should produce in order to change the mentality”

Naima Zaitan emphasizes “courageous” in her works. “I try to explain the reality of women in my theatre plays and films. The theatre plays performed at the Aquarium Hall emerge from the reality of Morocco. I aim to change the mentality in my works. We have to work continually to change the mentality. Everyone should produce in order to change the mentality.”

Diyala

In 2012, Naima Zaitan directed a play called “Diyala”, which caused great debates in Morocco. The play written by “Maha Sanou” is inspired by its outlines from the book “le monologue du vagin” (1996) by the American Eve Ensler, and based on a number of testimonies provided by dozens of Moroccan women from different social levels. “The play was performed at the Aquarium Hall. The Diyala is based on true stories of women. For this reason, some audiences criticized the play.”

The principle of equality

Women's inheritance rights are one of the issues that have been discussed in Morocco for years. Director Naima Zaitan tries to draw attention to this issue in her play called “Tarz al-Hasaba”. “I want to focus on the principle of equality in all my works. I want to break taboos. I want to break stereotypes based on gender. I want to say that a modern, open and developed society cannot exist without men and women, without love, respect, fraternity, and working hard.”