Encountering Morocco: Fieldwork and Cultural Understanding

1. Arabic or French? The Politics of Parole at a Psychiatric Hospital in Morocco

16 1| Arabic or French? The Politics of Parole at a Psychiatric Hospital in Morocco Charlotte E. van den Hout It is Thursday morning, and the patients and doctors of the open women’s ward at a Moroccan psychiatric hospital are gathering in the lounge for the weekly ijtima", an hour or so of sharing stories, experiences, and impressions of life at the hospital. As the women take their seats on the couches—­ made in a traditional design, but with a modern twist—­ the hum of excited whispers hangs in the air. There’s been conflict in the corridors this week, and the patients are expecting the issue to come to a head at today’s meeting. This morning I sit next to Nadia,1 a woman in her fifties who has been hospitalized for treatment of depression. She’s been here for a few weeks now and is clearly doing better. She has rediscovered an appreciation for the company of others, no longer isolating herself in her room. She’s gotten back into the habit of applying eye makeup in the morning, and the curl has returned to her short, auburn hair. Over the past few days, she has sought me out on the ward to tell me stories of her past and illness, as well as plans for her future. She is slightly restless this morning as she listens to her fellow patients ’ reports. The group’s anticipation has been satisfied: the women engaged in conflict have indeed brought their issue to the meeting. Arabic or French? | 17 It is a dispute over religious free­ dom, with one party claiming her right to religious expression (in her case, the recitation of Qur#anic verses in the ward’s corridors) and the other arguing for her right to free­ dom from religious indoctrination (especially at ten o’clock at night, when she would prefer to be sleeping). With growing emotion, the two women explain their viewpoints to the group. The doctors are barely able to maintain order. It is a heavy topic for any group of Moroccan women to address on a Thursday morning. Yet it is not the content but the form of the argument that prompts Nadia to lean in and whisper a question into my ear: “Can you follow all this Arabic?” I smile, make a gesture to imply that I’m getting the gist, and suggest we try to listen. But Nadia isn’t done yet. She leans in again, seeking understanding in my eyes. “I have a really hard time understanding the Arabic,” she confesses . “I’m not used to it at all.” And indeed, when it’s Nadia’s turn to talk, she makes a point of announcing that she would rather speak French. She cannot express herself as freely in Arabic, she explains to the doctor, whose nod indulges Nadia in her request. And so Nadia begins, noticeably changing the tone of the meeting as she informs her audience—­in soft, polished French—­that she had a good week. A few women shift in their seats, straightening their spines, and a subtle sense of formality seems to have seeped into the room. All disruptions have come to an end; even the bickering group is now silently listening to the cadence of Nadia’s French syllables. But then—­just like that, in a blink of an eye that completely negates the gravity of her origi­ nal request—­Nadia downshifts back into Arabic, formulating her closing statements in the local dialect. This curious linguistic shift is something we’ve all come to expect of Nadia. She identifies herself as a Moroccan woman, and we’ve all heard her speak her country’s brand of Arabic in chats with staff or fellow patients. Nevertheless, she exhibits a distinct and consistent 18 | Charlotte E. van den Hout preference for the language of Morocco’s former colonizer, and there is a moment in every conversation when she calls explicit attention to that fact. This behavior throws the anthropologist for a loop. Why would an in­di­vidual prefer to speak a sec­ond language—­a language stained with notions of colonial subjugation, no less—­rather than her or his native tongue? The basic methodological principles of ethnographic fieldwork assume that a research participant will always prefer to speak the language in which he or she is most comfortable (see, for instance, Briggs 1986), and that...