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African feminist scholar, writer, and documentarian Maha Marouan will present her research, “The Gendered Dynamics of Internal African Diasporas in Morocco: Migrant Women and the Quest for Autonomy,” as part of our Seminar Series on Wednesday, April 3, 2024 (10:00 am – 12:00 noon) at The Africa Institute – Auditorium (location map). The seminar is open to all; register to attend.
Over the past thirty years, the global securitization of borders has transformed Morocco from a transit country into a host country for a significant number of documented and undocumented migrant women from West and Central Africa. The confluence of oppressive border control policies, the patriarchal nature of national and international legislation, along with the lack of access to safe housing, job security, and reproductive health, leaves migrant women vulnerable to a high risk of sexual violence, social and racial marginalization, trafficking, and disappearance.
Marouan’s talk will focus on the gendered dynamics of internal African migration, exploring the subjectivities of West and Central African migrant women who are actively seeking autonomy, yet must negotiate oppressive migration policies and social and cultural practices that threaten their autonomy. She will examine the different forms of inequality they face, aiming to shed light on their daily lives, where they are often positioned in an ambiguous space between alienation and belonging, criminality and lawfulness. Marouan will utilize an Africanist feminist lens to examine the racialization of migrant women, directly linked to the history of slavery and the stigmatization of blackness in Northern Africa. Simultaneously, she will employ a transnational feminist critique of global capitalism to scrutinize the exploitation of African migrant and refugee women as cheap labor. Her examination of migrant women’s relationship with legislative and judicial systems of power also prompts an investigation into notions of legality versus illegality, forming the foundation of immigration law. She argues that the definition of a legal, law-abiding citizen with rights necessitates the creation of a category of people who are illegal, lawless, and without rights, resulting in a logic of disposability that renders many migrant women unworthy of rights.
Maha Marouan is an African feminist scholar, writer, and documentarian. She is an Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, African American Studies, and African Studies at Pennsylvania State University, where she co-directs the African Feminist Initiative. Some of her published works include “Witches, Goddesses, and Angry Spirits: The Politics of Spiritual Liberation in African Diaspora Women’s Fiction” (Ohio University Press, 2013); a co-edited volume, “Race and Displacement: Nation, Migration, and Identity in the Twenty-First Century” (University of Alabama Press, 2013); a Women Make Movies documentary titled, “Voices of Muslim Women in the U.S. South” (2015); and “Shame,” a short story in the Boston Review nominated for the 2020 PEN America Award (2019). Her most recent publication includes “Contemporary Notions of Race in Morocco: Blackness, Migration, and the Legacy of Slavery” (Jadaliyya, 2023). She is currently co-editing a special issue of Feminist Formations, “Writing African Feminist Subjectivities” (forthcoming in 2024). She works extensively with the United Nations, reporting on Mediterranean migration and disappearances. She was recently a resident fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center (22-23) and is currently a resident fellow at the New Institute program on Black Feminism in Hamburg, Germany.
Faisal Garba Muhammed is an Associate Professor of Sociology, Migration, and Mobility at The Africa Institute (GSU), Sharjah. Read more.
Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.
The seminar will be in English.
The session is free and open to the public. Registration is mandatory, Read more
African feminist scholar, writer, and documentarian Maha Marouan will present her research, “The Gendered Dynamics of Internal African Diasporas in Morocco: Migrant Women and the Quest for Autonomy,” as part of our Seminar Series on Wednesday, April 3, 2024 (10:00 am – 12:00 noon) at The Africa Institute – Auditorium (location map). The seminar is open to all; register to attend.
African feminist scholar, writer, and documentarian Maha Marouan will present her research, “The Gendered Dynamics of Internal African Diasporas in Morocco: Migrant Women and the Quest for Autonomy,” as part of our Seminar Series on Wednesday, April 3, 2024 (10:00 am – 12:00 noon) at The Africa Institute – Auditorium (location map). The seminar is open to all; register to attend.
Over the past thirty years, the global securitization of borders has transformed Morocco from a transit country into a host country for a significant number of documented and undocumented migrant women from West and Central Africa. The confluence of oppressive border control policies, the patriarchal nature of national and international legislation, along with the lack of access to safe housing, job security, and reproductive health, leaves migrant women vulnerable to a high risk of sexual violence, social and racial marginalization, trafficking, and disappearance.
Marouan’s talk will focus on the gendered dynamics of internal African migration, exploring the subjectivities of West and Central African migrant women who are actively seeking autonomy, yet must negotiate oppressive migration policies and social and cultural practices that threaten their autonomy. She will examine the different forms of inequality they face, aiming to shed light on their daily lives, where they are often positioned in an ambiguous space between alienation and belonging, criminality and lawfulness. Marouan will utilize an Africanist feminist lens to examine the racialization of migrant women, directly linked to the history of slavery and the stigmatization of blackness in Northern Africa. Simultaneously, she will employ a transnational feminist critique of global capitalism to scrutinize the exploitation of African migrant and refugee women as cheap labor. Her examination of migrant women’s relationship with legislative and judicial systems of power also prompts an investigation into notions of legality versus illegality, forming the foundation of immigration law. She argues that the definition of a legal, law-abiding citizen with rights necessitates the creation of a category of people who are illegal, lawless, and without rights, resulting in a logic of disposability that renders many migrant women unworthy of rights.
Maha Marouan is an African feminist scholar, writer, and documentarian. She is an Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, African American Studies, and African Studies at Pennsylvania State University, where she co-directs the African Feminist Initiative. Some of her published works include “Witches, Goddesses, and Angry Spirits: The Politics of Spiritual Liberation in African Diaspora Women’s Fiction” (Ohio University Press, 2013); a co-edited volume, “Race and Displacement: Nation, Migration, and Identity in the Twenty-First Century” (University of Alabama Press, 2013); a Women Make Movies documentary titled, “Voices of Muslim Women in the U.S. South” (2015); and “Shame,” a short story in the Boston Review nominated for the 2020 PEN America Award (2019). Her most recent publication includes “Contemporary Notions of Race in Morocco: Blackness, Migration, and the Legacy of Slavery” (Jadaliyya, 2023). She is currently co-editing a special issue of Feminist Formations, “Writing African Feminist Subjectivities” (forthcoming in 2024). She works extensively with the United Nations, reporting on Mediterranean migration and disappearances. She was recently a resident fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center (22-23) and is currently a resident fellow at the New Institute program on Black Feminism in Hamburg, Germany.
Faisal Garba Muhammed is an Associate Professor of Sociology, Migration, and Mobility at The Africa Institute (GSU), Sharjah. Read more.
Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.
The seminar will be in English.
The session is free and open to the public. Registration is mandatory, Read more
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