Moroccan women\'s hardships showcased in Salé festival

Moroccan women's hardships in Salé festival The sixth edition of the International Women's Film Festival of Salé is expected to witness a strong presence for the Moroccan filmmakers whose several films in 2012 have put Moroccan women in the spotlight. The Salé Festival is dedicated to movies that focus on women issues all around the world. The festival, which started on September 17 and will run till September 22, features competitions for both long and short feature films.
The Moroccan makers have had a heavy participation in both competitions this year, as their movies have highlighted a wide range of Moroccan women. We take a look at some of these females who are making a change:
Afflicted women:
In her movie, “The Toy" Hend Olmden tells the story of Nadia, who returns to her country after a long period of expatriation to be beside her father in the last moments of his life. After his death, Nadia falls into deep grief, and dedicates herself to a religious life where she only reads religious rituals and verses of the Quran. She then starts to have contact with her neighbours who try to help her get over her sadness, until she decides to cooperate with them in opening a centre for spiritual treatment for the oppressed women.
Mutinous women:
"Women in Mirrors" by Saad Charaybi shows a mutinous women who fights hard to gain her rights in a society that largely undermines women's role in life. It is about women being free and granted fair opportunities to compete with men in work and other fields. The film shows how the internet had a great significance in giving the Moroccan women a chance in expressing their feelings and views and staying in contact with what is happening around. The movie can be considered a special tribute to the struggle of the pioneer Moroccan women who pushed the state of women rights in Morocco to a very much advanced position.
Oppressed Women:
"Androman Made of Blood and Coal", a long movie by Ezz el-Arab Elwi, tells the story of a Moroccan villager who has two daughters and no sons, so he decides to raise his older daughter Androman as a boy. He dresses her up as a boy to the outside world but when she returns home she is a girl again who has to cook and take care of her younger sister. However when her father discovers her purchasing female clothes, he brutally beats her and hangs her from a deep well forcing her to live as a man.
Liberal Women:
In "A Wing in the Air", the filmmaker Abdelhai Iraqi tells the story of a high school girl who gets pregnant before marriage, which is massively condemned in Morocco. Yet, the girl insists not to marry and not to be subject to the social or religious traditions, which puts her in a serious with her family and the surrounding society in general.
Desperate Women:
"The Fifth Chord" by Laila Burkash shows the misery of a young woman whose husband dies leaving her responsible for three children. As time goes on, she finds herself exhausted in order to afford her children's needs, while on the mental side she severely suffers loneliness.
Bedouin Women:
While most of the participant Moroccan movies are telling the stories of women living in the big cities of Morocco, the filmmaker Mustafa Khaiat decided to switch the lights to the life of the Bedouin women who suffer very tough living conditions in the Moroccan deserts. His movie "The House Dogs" tells the story of a woman who works hard to survive in a place where survival is not as easy as many people think.
Faithful Wives:
Ahmed Poulan focuses on one of the main characteristics of the Moroccan wives, faith. "The Son's Return" shows how a wife remains totally loyal to her husband amid an extremely troubled conditions during the French occupation to Morocco.
Women Seeking Divorce:
"The Last Night" for Mariam Touzani shows the long way a Moroccan Woman has to go to get a divorce from an unfaithful and ill-mannered husband who has the law by his side, but this doesn't prevent the wife Sa'eeda to go all the way to get rid of him and start a new life.