In her book, Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood, Moroccan feminist writer and sociologist Fatima Mernissi lays out the enormous intellectual feat undertaken by every kid when they try to decipher and settle all the conflicting details composing the puzzle of their identity. Growing up in Morocco in the 1940’s at the height of the second world war, Mernissi tries to understand the reasons for international conflicts between Christian, Jews and Muslims, as well as between Germans and Jews, women and men, Conservatism and Modernism. She also tries to resolve her contradicting identities being ‘daughter’, ‘Moroccan’, ‘Muslim’ on the one hand and seeking self fullfillment, a sense of personal ideology and an escape from imposed ideologies and freedom on the other hand. She assembles random, partial and haphazard testimonials given to her inadvertently by her mom, dad, teacher, cousins, grandmother, and many others she encounters. In Hudud I interlace Mernissi’s attempts with my own personal experience as an effeminate, secular, Israeli kid growing up in the 1980’s, as I try to make sense of how I fit into “the grand scheme of things” - where do Jews come from? What’s the difference between Jewish and Israeli? Why is there a conflict between Arabs and Israelis, Christians and Jews, what’s considered feminine and masculine, and where does my immediately surrounding culture draw the sacred line (“Hudud”) between what is forbidden and what’s allowed. Created for A-Genre Festival - Tmuna Theater, 2011. Written and performed by Rotem Tashach.
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