Days before Morocco’s major earthquake, while exploring the remote High Atlas Mountains, Sarah Pollok didn’t expect to meet a group of passionate, determined women defying cultural norms. She explains why this off-the-beaten-track spot, which escaped earthquake damage, is a must-visit.
Early in the morning, long before the sun has even considered breaking over the horizon, Nadia Baa Bouz is busy in the kitchen.
By the more reasonable time of 8.30am, her family will wake up to a bench covered in dishes bearing breakfast, lunch and dinner but the 43-year-old will be long gone, already in another kitchen, that of a nearby restaurant. There, she will work until 8.30pm, walk home and prepare to do it all over again the next day.
Not because her family needs the money or because she dislikes home life but simply because she loves it.
Even in the most progressive cities, Nadia’s long work day would cop judgment from fellow families. One can only imagine the pushback she faces in Ksar of Ait Benhaddou, an 11th-century citadel hidden in the foothills of Morocco’s High Atlas mountains, in the Ouarzazate province.
If the High Atlas Mountains sound familiar, it’s likely from reports of Morocco’s September earthquake, which devastated small villages in the region. Thankfully, Ait Benhaddouit was 130km east of the epicentre, meaning few of its Unesco-protected earthen buildings were damaged. Tourists returned almost immediately to marvel at the incredible citadel, which has been the background for several Hollywood blockbusters such as Gladiator and Game of Thrones.
However, if it’s real-life heroes you’re interested in, Tawesna Salon de Thé, a restaurant run by an all-women co-op called the Tawesna Association, is the place to go.
It’s 1pm when we wander into the open-air restaurant, an excursion as part of our Intrepid Travel tour itinerary. After a brief introduction, Nadia and the team get to work ferrying dozens of dishes from the kitchen to our table, which quickly resembles a tapestry of Moroccan cuisine.
There are fresh tomato, and capsicum salads dressed in oil and parsley, steaming bowls of hearty lentil stew and, of course, tagines, served in bright orange, blue and green pots.
We lift the conical lids to reveal sizzling slabs of eggplant, potato, carrot and zucchini fanned around a bed of buttery couscous. Armed with baskets of fresh khobz (Moroccan bread), we dig in, while Nadia continues to flit between the kitchen and tables, always on her feet.
It’s only when she sits down to chat that you fully appreciate the joy that radiates from her like a river, quiet but strong. Smiling softly, not a hair out of place beneath her expertly wrapped headscarf, Nadia doesn’t look like someone who has been awake since dawn, making meals for her family before coming to work and cooking up a feast.
At first glance, she also may not seem like an aspirational model of feminism (even to herself), yet that’s exactly what she, and the women of Tawesna, are.
Flashback to 2017 and Leila Azdou, a young, single woman from the village, had a simple idea to start an association that helped women experience financial independence and purpose outside the home by selling something they could make in their home; biscuits and tea.
Thus, the Tawesna Association and its first project, Tawesna Salon du te, was born. Logistically simple? Yes, but culturally challenging too.
Similar to its Middle Eastern and North African neighbours, Morocco’s conservative, patriarchal roots run deep and, in remote villages, largely undisturbed. The result? A nation where 80 per cent of working-age women aren’t employed (a number that continues to climb each year). Instead, women must rely on the men in their lives, be it their father, brother, husband or uncle, for financial, and consequentially physical and emotional, security.
So, in a place like Ait Benhaddou, a job isn’t simply a job for a woman; it’s a source of purpose beyond the home, a way to gain confidence amongst like-minded women and a rare opportunity to earn their own money, qualities that make it appear disruptive (if not downright dangerous) to men and thus, an impossible dream for most women.
“It was a challenge because some of their brothers, husbands or fathers forbade them, didn’t want ladies to work,” Nadia said when explaining Tawesna’s foundation.
“When we thought about starting the association, we organised a huge meeting of about 150 ladies in the village to convince them of the idea,” Nadia said. Only 40 women signed up but not because others weren’t convinced, rather, their husbands wouldn’t allow them. Fortunately, Nadia’s story was different.
“My husband never forbade me and supported me, and even my brother too,” she said, not only to join but to become the head chef and association deputy.
Nadia wasn’t new to working life and that may have helped. Before joining the Tawesna Association, she was an assistant nurse for a doctor in the village for five years. It was only when the doctor proposed upskilling she realised she didn’t love nursing as much as she loved being in the kitchen; but not just any kitchen.
“The kitchen for me, here, not at home, is like therapy,” Nadia said. “I can’t think about any problems I have at home, because I’m happy here.”
So, while most of us find an eight-hour workday long enough, Nadia can’t help but stay longer.
“I’m always full of energy, I never feel bored when there are customers. From morning till night I’m full of energy,” she said, crediting her verve to the people she meets every day. In this way, the association was like a window to the wider world, she said, breaking her routine and broadening her worldview.
Despite the remote location, the restaurant has become well known amongst locals and tour groups such as Intrepid Travel, who bring 4-5 groups by every day during high seasons.
This is all before considering the financial advantages Tawesna provides; a unique prospect for members, who, unlike most women in the Atlas Mountains, can enjoy the physical and psychological independence money provides.
“The third is to be independent and to have their own income, now they are happy, they can do with the money they have whatever they want,” Nadia said. “They aren’t obliged to ask their husband or brother or father to give them money because they are making their own money.”
Point three is especially important considering 80 per cent of the women who work here are divorced (not because they joined, we’re told with a laugh); a fate that would otherwise leave women dependent on the goodwill of male family members.
It’s a freedom so valuable that they continue to pay one member who is too sick to keep working.
Yet, to call Tawesna a workplace is woefully inadequate. Peeking into the kitchen, the women chatter away, laughing and fussing over plates like a room of aunties.
Between their incredible food and palpable joy, it’s no surprise they’re gradually changing the minds of resistant locals, men and women alike.
Looking around the cafe, where small groups of locals pass through for mint tea or a bite to eat, it’s a far cry from 2017, when men tried to pressure the property owner out of renting the land to the association.
“Now the other ladies are seeing us succeeding, they want to join,” Nadia said.
Currently, the kitchen is fully staffed but the association has plans for a new project which would involve making couscous that people could buy and cook at home.
If it’s even half as delicious as the dishes we polished off, there is no doubt it’ll be a hit.
CHECKLIST
MOROCCO
GETTING THERE
Air NZ, Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways and Lufthansa all fly from Auckland to Marrakech with two stopovers on a codeshare basis.
DETAILS
Intrepid Travel offers a number of itineraries visiting Morocco, including the 15-day “Premium Morocco in Depth”, priced from $4,140pp with several departures every month.
intrepidtravel.com/nz/morocco