Embroidering Histories - Embroidery, Women and the Threads between Them in Colonial Morocco

As in many other contexts, historical studies about women in Morocco are scarce. The lack of written sources by and about women make it difficult to trace their stories in different historical periods. My study examines the place of “female crafts”, such as embroidery, in telling stories that are missing from written archives. By following the material aspects of embroidery, together with archival research and oral histories, fascinating stories come to the surface. Those stories refer to the influences of aesthetic traditions that can be dated back to hundreds of centuries ago, and highlight social trends that can be seen even nowadays. The diverse Moroccan embroidery (Tetuani, Chafchaouani, Fesi, Rabati, Azzemouri and more) contains different influences from diverse periods and regions. Those influences were at times preserved and at times challenged by women through the craft of embroidery, thus the embroidery reflects tensions that were passed from generation to generation of Moroccan women. 

My presentation will focus on the story of embroidery and the embroiderers in Azzemoure, a small Moroccan town on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. In this small town the embroidery helps us uncover many layers of historical trends and influences from around the globe.

Elya Assayag is a history PhD candidate at Columbia University. She studies the history of Moroccan women during the 20th century. Due to a lack of written sources by and about women, Elya's research uses diverse methodologies in addition to archival search, such as oral history and material culture analysis. At the center of her study stands Moroccan embroidery as a known "female" craft. This craft is used as a means to understand broader social aspects in women's lives. Besides trying to figure out her academic path, she volunteers with refugees and asylum seekers, and tries to do something useful with the law degree she obtained a few years ago.

- this seminars is free to attend but registration is required.