Saida Menebhi | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1952 |
| Died | December 11, 1977 (aged 24–25) |
| Cause of death | hunger strike |
Saida Menebhi (1952 in Marrakesh – 11 December 1977 in Casablanca) was a Moroccan poet, high school teacher, and activist with the Marxist revolutionary movement Ila al-Amam. In 1975, she, together with five other members of the movement, was sentenced for seven years of imprisonment for anti-state activity. On November 8, 1977, inside the jail in Casablanca, she participated in a collective hunger strike, and died on the 35th day of the strike at Avicenne Hospital.[1][2]
Her poetry, collected and published first in 1978, and later again in 2000, is considered a prime example of Moroccan revolutionary and feminist literature. She wrote in French. Translations of a selection of her poems to English were published for the first time in 2021 by See Red Press.[3]
Abduction
On January 16, 1976, Saida Menebhi was abducted and detained—along with 3 other female militants, Rabea Ftouh, Piera di Maggio and Fatima Oukacha—in the secret Moulay Sherif Prison in Casablanca, now known as a prominent center of torture in the period of King Hassan II.[4] There, they were subjected to a number of different kinds of physical and psychological torture before being transferred to the civilian prison in Casablanca.[5] Menebhi and her comrades Fatima Oukacha and Rabea Ftouh were sentenced to indefinite solitary confinement in the civilian prison of Casablanca.[6][5]
Published work
- Menebhi, Saïda (1978). Poèmes, lettres, écrits de prison (in French). Comités de lutte contre la répression au Maroc.[7]
- Menebhi, Saïda (2021). Prison, Poetry, Martyrdom: Saida Menebhi and the Moroccan Years of Lead. See Red Press.
References
- ↑ Regina, Giusy (12 December 2011). "Marocco: 34° anniversario della morte di Saida Menebhi, icona d'attivismo" (in Italian). ArabPress. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
- ↑ "11 décembre 1977 : décès de Saïda Menebhi, « la martyre du peuple marocain »" (in French). Diversgens. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- ↑ Prison, Poetry, Martyrdom: Saida Menebhi and the Moroccan Years of Lead
- ↑ " الشهيدة سعيدة المنبهي كتبت الشعر بالاظافر والدم (مختارات من ديوانها) " . الموقع الإلكتروني لمؤسسة الحوار المتمدن . العدد 4867 . 15 يوليو 2015 Archived 2017-02-05 at the Wayback Machine
- 1 2 "سعيدة المنبهي..امرأة أحبت الضوء". Hespress (in Arabic). 26 August 2011. Retrieved 2019-08-10.
- ↑ "محسين الشهباني - الشهيدة سعيدة المنبهي كتبت الشعر بالاظافر والدم (مختارات من ديوانها )". الحوار المتمدن. Retrieved 2019-08-10.
- ↑ Orlando, Valérie K. (September 2010). "Feminine spaces and places in the dark recesses of Morocco's past: the prison testimonials in poetry and prose of Saïda Menebhi and Fatna El Bouih". The Journal of North African Studies. 15 (3): 273–288. doi:10.1080/13629380902745884. ISSN 1362-9387.