WUNRN
MOROCCO - SINGLE MOTHER FIGHTS
TRADITION & THE LEGAL SYSTEM FOR HER ILLEGITIMATE CHILD - FILM
Deborah Perkin Media Ltd
presents
BASTARDS
How an illiterate woman
took on tradition, her own family and the Moroccan legal system for the sake of
her illegitimate child
Documentary written, directed and filmed by Deborah Perkin
Featuring Rabha El Haimer, Aicha Chenna, Fatiha
Rabbah, Soumia Idman,
SYNOPSIS
How an illiterate woman took on tradition, her own
family and the Moroccan legal system for the sake of her illegitimate child
Bastards tells the
moving and uplifting story of Rabha El Haimer and her heroic fight to have her
traditional wedding ceremony legally recognized as a marriage and her daughter
legitimized by the Moroccan judicial system. It is also a complex and
compelling portrait of Moroccan society and its attitudes to women, female
sexuality, their position in society and access to education.
Through Rabha’s story, the Moroccan judicial system is laid open and the
contemporary issues facing Islamic women are exposed as they seek to reconcile
their desire for increased independence with religious and family traditions.
INTRODUCTION
At 14 Rabha El Haimer was
forced into a marriage with a man she had never met. After her daughter was
born, she discovered that the wedding, a traditional ceremony, had no legal
status. Her child was therefore illegitimate.
In
These ‘illegitimate’
children are refused infant immunisations and kept out of the better schools.
Their non-status means their fathers can reject them – and their mothers – and
fail to support them, in the knowledge that the law is effectively on their
side. And it doesn’t end there. Throughout the children’s lives the stigma
remains. They are prevented from taking more lucrative and prestigious jobs,
such as in the civil service or the police. They are second-class citizens,
condemned to a life of discrimination.
Rabha el Haimer has made it her mission to
challenge this. Despite not being able to read or write, she has embarked on a
mission to get her fatha marriage
recognised so she can register her daughter as a full Moroccan citizen. With
unprecedented access to the Moroccan justice system, Bastards follows her
journey from the slums of
In her quest, Rabha faces
not only the judges and officials but her child’s father, a violent and
uncompromising man who refuses to acknowledge or support their daughter. She
also endures insults from his family, and the self-justification of her own
mother, who married her off at just 14.
However the story is not
all negative.
In 2004, the Moroccan government made the most
radical attempt to date in a Muslim country to give women individual rights
under Islamic law, with the reform of the
‘Mudawana’ or Family Code. And a pioneering
Rabha’s story is interwoven
with those of a mistress fighting for child maintenance, a young student who
cannot get the job he wants because of his illegitimacy and a single mother whose boyfriend tried to sell their baby.
Revealing the many facets of a modern Muslim country, Bastards is a deeply moving, funny, and ultimately triumphant portrait of courage in the face of adversity.
Rabha’s story
At the age of 14, her
mother and her uncle forced Rabha into an arranged marriage to an older cousin
she had never met. When she moved into his home, she discovered that he was
deaf and mute, so communication was all but impossible – and according to
Rabha, he was also violent.
After two years of rape and
beatings, Rabha was pregnant and suicidal. The cousin’s family responded by
throwing her out.
It was then Rabha
discovered that her traditional marriage ceremony had no status in law. She had
been compelled to submit to her husband’s authority like a wife, but had none of
a wife’s rights. She was classed as a single mother and her cherished daughter
Salma, a bastard.
But Rabha refused to remain a victim. Despite being unable to read
or write she embarked on a crusade to compel Salma’s father and his family to face up to their responsibilities,
and to gain full citizenship for her child. Helping her fight this battle was a
unique and radical charity in
Over eighteen months, Rabha makes three journeys to Agadir to fight her way through the courts with the help of her determined and committed female lawyer Lamia Faridi. And Perkin’s camera follows them into court. There are shocking scenes as Rabha is made to swear on oath that she was a virgin when she got married, and her mute husband insists in sign language that he is not the father of her child. He even denies the ceremony took place – he wasn’t there. Rabha’s extraordinary courage and persistence in the face of such odds are further demonstrated when she persuades several of the witnesses from the wedding to make the hundred mile journey to support her in court.
In most Muslim countries
sex outside marriage is taboo. But
With 6500 babies abandoned
every year,
The Mudawana
The Mudawana,
is the personal status code, also known as the family code, in Moroccan law.
It concerns issues related to the family, including the regulation of marriage, polygamy, divorce, inheritance,
and child
custody.
Originally based on the Maliki
Although there were calls for reform to the family law in the 1960s and
70s, its religious origins made amending it a challenge, and no
serious movement for reform emerged until the 1980s. As a result of newly
created civil society organizations, including many women’s organizations, and
increased international attention on women’s rights, modest reforms to the
Mudawana were enacted in 1993 under King Hassan
II. Following this initial change, increased activism resulted in the
articulation of a Plan of Action for the Integration of Women
in Development, which drew heavily from secular, rights-based frameworks. This
sparked fierce debate and opposition within Moroccan political elites and, to a
somewhat lesser extent, Moroccan society, and culminated in two rallies in
Major components of the reforms included raising the minimum
legal age of marriage to 18 for men and women,
establishing joint responsibility for the family among men and women, limiting
the terms of polygamy and divorce, and granting women more rights in the
negotiation of marriage contracts, among other provisions. Supporters of the
reforms point to broad support for them among Moroccan society, especially
among women, and cite the new law as a successful example of a progressive
reform framed in indigenous, Islamic principles. Critics of the reforms point
to the elitist roots of the movements that advocated for the reforms, the
influence of Western secular principles, and the many barriers to the law’s
implementation within Moroccan society.