At 27, Zainab Fasiki, Moroccan designer and seasoned feminist, distinguished herself yesterday, Saturday March 19, 2022, at the Angoulême comic book festival, in France, by winning the prize for artistic courage, awarded each year in sidelines of this globally recognized event.
Originally from the medina of Fez, from a modest family, the youngest and only daughter of six siblings, Zainab Fasiki has been drawing Moroccan women since the age of 19 and lays down their assumed nudity, their power, their daily struggles in a society that keeps them under the leaden screed of hshoma and taboos.
His denunciation of sexism in comics and his promotion of the freedom of women to dress and express themselves freely is a first in Morocco, but also at the Angoulême Festival where his talent was recognized by his peers.
An engineer by training, the author in 2019 of Hshouma: body and sexuality in Morocco, was thus awarded the prize for courage “for his words, his courage and the beauty of his work”, a prize created in 2016 by the promoters of the “Off of Off” of Angoulême, under the name of “prize balls in the ass for artistic courage”, in order to reward an author defying censorship, and which had been awarded during the previous edition in 2020 to the Algerian Nime (Abdelhamid Amine of his real name), critic of the regime condemned to prison for a political satire denouncing the influence of the military in the country. Interview.
How did you feel receiving this award?
I felt a lot of joy… It is an honor for me to receive this prize in Angoulême, the most inspiring place for the world of comics on an international scale.
I am also very honored to be the first Moroccan winner of this prize. It’s a huge responsibility in itself, because I’m here to represent my country, political comics but also Moroccan women. I consider this award a victory for all women in the MENA region, living in countries where freedom of artistic expression is not always valued.
Your comics, the themes of nudity and sexuality that you tackle there, have confronted you with many detractors in Morocco. How do you deal with criticism?
Yes indeed, there were a lot of articles criticizing my work, derogatory comments, insults, death threats too… At the beginning, I didn’t accept it. I was still young when I started to broach the subject of nudity on social media by posting political cartoons. But little by little, I began to develop a form of resistance to all this, and I understood that the insults were an integral part of the process of changing society in which I was part. We live in this culture of hshoma, to which I do not oppose, but which I try to explain, to question, by wondering regarding the why of this culture of patriarchal censorship which judges women and hinders them in their freedom of expression. It is an ideology that no longer has its place in the 21ste century and that I am trying to change in my own way.
What lesson do you draw from your journey in light of this award ceremony?
Lots of pride. The fact of having grown up in the medina, in a poor family, and of being here today with all these publishers and cartoonists that I read from a very young age, is enormous. I dreamed then of meeting all these people while telling myself that it was impossible. So this prize is a victory for me but also for every woman artist. Nothing is impossible if we feed our ambitions, dreams and creativity, if we work hard day and night, regardless of our social class and where it comes from.
To whom are you dedicating this prize today?
First of all to mom… A powerful woman, who put an end to her career as a nurse to become a housewife and raise her six children. I consider her choice a huge sacrifice and that’s why my feminism also respects women who choose to raise their children, to sacrifice their lives for them. I also dedicate this prize to all the Moroccan women who wake up in the morning saying to themselves: “today, I have dreams to achieve”.
A last word with regard to the Moroccan women who occupy the central place of your work?
A small word would not be enough to express all the respect I have for Moroccan women… What I am trying to achieve through my comics is not intended only for the current woman but also to future generations. I hope to participate in making their task easier, in ensuring that they do not suffer as we still suffer today from the lack of individual freedoms. I don’t want them to waste time with all that, I would like us to move forward, for our energy to be invested in other subjects because today, in the 21ste century, we are still campaigning for hyper-basic rights.
