(See Cover)
And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands . . . or their slaves or male attendants who lack vigor, or children who know naught of women's nakedness . . .
Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other.
—The Koran
In the Moroccan coastal city of Tangier, frenzied crowds cheered hoarsely as a majestically robed figure on a white horse rode past to receive their homage. From housetops and behind latticed windows, veiled women shrilled their "ayee, ayee" of adulation. The man on horseback was His Majesty Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef, and the purpose of his visit that hot, sunny April day in 1947 was to give sustenance to a dream that has since become reality: freedom and independence for his country.
The next night, in the patio of Tangier's casbah, a lissome girl in a shimmering blue silk Lanvin gown, milk-white turban and evening slippers gracefully ascended a dais piled high with priceless Oriental carpets, and turned to face her audience. Younger men in the audience eyed appreciatively the girl's dark eyes, her rich red-brown hair and café au lait complexion. But many orthodox Moslem traditionalists just stared wide-eyed, stunned and aghast at the appearance in public of Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Aisha, eldest daughter of His Majesty the Sultan—17 years old, unveiled and unashamed.
Root Out & Reject. To Westerners, the words she spoke sounded less than incendiary. "I know how many bad customs are attached to our society," she said, "how many prejudices are fastened on us. We must root out and reject them, and in that ambiance of modern culture to which present-day life leads and calls us irresistibly, it is essential that the women of Morocco participate ardently and usefully in the life of the nation, imitating in this respect their sisters of the East and West, whose great activity contributes to the welfare of their countries."
But Morocco's women recognized these words for what they were—a call to shake off an age-old bondage fastened on them in the name of Mohammed and perpetuated by generations of mullahs (teachers). Taking courage from this display of feminist leadership and example from the royal family itself, thousands of women all over the country forthwith cast aside their veils and began talking briskly of emancipation.