Aline Tauzin
Senior Researcher in anthropology at the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Picardy, and Professor at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris

"Women in Western Sahara: Between Constraint and Avoidance" (in English)

Tuesday, April 22
12:20 p.m.
260 Bascom Hall

Sponsored by the
Center for Interdisciplinary French Studies To the CIFS website
Cosponsored by the Department of Sociology, the Women's Studies Program, and the African Studies Program

The Moors of Mauritania, a Muslim and Arabic speaking ethnic group located in the western part of Sahara, present an original gender organization. Defined from a masculine position and in accordance with Islamic dogma, woman appears as both fascinating and dangerous. Her charms and tricks, although deeply attractive, bring men to death or madness, just as music and song lead keen young males to transexualism. One of the answers to such dangers lies in the construction of an inaccessible feminine figure, whose body is constantly filled with food and deprived of desire, and who is said, through masculine love poetry, definitely unconcerned and cruel.