Casablanca Calling

Casablanca Calling is a documentation of three female Quran experts, known as Morchidat, as they try to breakdown misinterpretations of the Quran and reintroduce the classical role women used to hold in religion and in society as a whole. Meriem El Haitami, a Moroccan author who focuses on female religious authority and activism, describes the Morchidat as women whose goal is to “include extensive discussions of gender relations within marriage and family and religious observances.” Early on in the film one of the Morchida, Hannane, begins speaking to a group of only women and smoothly transitions into her speaking on an elevated surface in front of a much larger mixed group preaching, “Islam is about forgiveness, fighting violence, compassion. Our religion is not about how we appear. It’s what is in our hearts.” In my opinion this resonates very strongly and begins to tease the watcher into opening their minds about Islam and the way it functions in Moroccan culture. 

Covering oneself is obviously not the only sign of someone who is faithful but it is the easiest to spot with my limited knowledge on the intricacy of Islam in Morocco. In my experience thus far I haven’t picked up on any exclusionary acts dependent on religion alone. I have seen a mix of women in Rabat who do and don’t wear a veil, who choose to sit with a man, possibly a significant other, or those who only sit with other women independent of their choice to cover themselves. In Hamner’s Religion and Film, he argues that “evental analysis brings unspoken assumptions to the surface of pedagogy, so that they can be acknowledged and discussed.” Throughout Casablanca Calling a majority of women, regardless of age, wore a hijab or other types of more traditional clothing in public. What I found interesting was that some chose not to wear a veil in private although they knew they were going to be seen by a much wider audience. These women were typically younger and it makes me wonder if it was anything more than them being comfortable with the film crew.I find it important to note Casablanca Calling was directed and filmed by Rosa Rogers, a white woman, and was funded and sponsored partially by the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation and The State. Of course these are not the only people involved in creating this film, but approval from the King and support of a well known progressive American pastor is significant. Due to these reasons the film therefore does its best to portray Islam in Morocco, and Morocco in general, in a positive light for the combination of Western, Moroccan, and Muslim audiences. The Morchidat aspire for a more inclusive culture, and hoping they are successful in their endeavors, some of the stigma in Casablanca Calling will no longer exist. But despite this “how the subject had once been seen by other people,” will exist forever. John Berger successfully captures the fleeting yet eternal interpretations and implications of a medium by making the reader aware that “we never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.” This quote is not relevant to only this assignment, but to all of our experiences in Morocco in general. Every film, reading, experience, and research data tie in together and causes us to observe deeper than what we are seeing at a surface level.