Souâd Bahéchar is a Moroccan teacher, museum curator, and woman of letters, born in 1953.

Souâd Bahéchar
BornMarch 24, 1953
NationalityMoroccan
Occupation(s)Teacher, Museum curator, Writer

Biography

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Born on (1953-03-24)March 24, 1953 in Casablanca, she studied art and archaeology at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. Upon returning to Morocco, she settled in Tangier. She taught art history at the International Higher Institute of Tourism and was appointed curator of the Al Kasbah Museum, which houses archaeological and ethnographic collections.[1] She later directed an art gallery, Tanjah Flandria, from 1990 to 1993, spent time in Germany, and returned to her homeland.[2]

Concurrently, she dedicated herself to writing and eventually left her museum work to focus on literary creation.[1][3] Her debut novel, Ni fleurs ni couronnes, received the Grand Atlas Prize in 2001.[1] Through this novel, she offers an original perspective on a woman's construction of her identity. The story follows a young girl, the nth daughter of parents longing for a male heir, abandoned during her childhood. She grows up alone on the outskirts of the family home, then in the forest of her village as a wild child, before being taken in by a teacher. However, integrating into the village community proves challenging.[4][5]

Selected works

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  • 2000: Ni fleurs ni couronnes, novel, Éditions Le Fennec[6]
  • 2005: Le Concert des cloches, novel, Éditions Le Fennec.[7]
  • 2011: Casablanca, text accompanying photographs by Marco Bardon, Éditions Filigranes.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Selma El-Maadani (2013). "Bahéchar, Souâd [Casablanca 1953]". In Béatrice Didier, Antoinette Fouque, Mireille Calle-Gruber (ed.). Le Dictionnaire universel des créatrices (in French). Éditions des femmes. p. 355. ISBN 978-2-7210-0651-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  2. ^ Aziz Daki (March 8, 2002). "Souâd Bahéchar ou la soif de vivre". Aujourd'hui le Maroc (in French).
  3. ^ Wissal Segraoui (April 28, 2000). "La conquête de l'identité". L'Économiste (in French). No. 757.
  4. ^ Mokhtar Belarbi (March 3, 2011). "Métamorphoses du corps féminin dans la littérature marocaine et japonaise". Sens Public (in French).
  5. ^ Sabah Amrouche (2008). L'interaction entre le corps et l'espace dans Ni fleurs ni couronnes de Souad Bahéchar et Cérémonie de Yasmine Chami-Kettan (PDF) (in French). Université du Québec à Montréal.
  6. ^ Atika Haimoud (February 17, 2006). "Portrait : Souad Bahéchar, la passion d'écrire". Aujourd'hui le Maroc (in French).
  7. ^ "Le concert des cloches, de Souad Bahéchar : Gloire aux talents déchus". Le Matin (in French). March 24, 2005.