Translating Nouzha Fassi Fihri's La Baroudeuse: A Case Study in ...

one another on makeshift platforms, whipping up their fellow citizens' emotions
and zeal, reminding them that the foreigner wanted to take their worldly goods,
and above all, destroy their religion. "They want to make this country a Christian
land. The country where Okba and Idris brought the word of God. Can you allow
His law to be ignored again? Will you be the cursed generation? On the Day of
Judgment, would you dare to appear before your Creator with this shadow over
your head? What is life worth if you have to live as an outlaw? What does death
matter if you die a martyr to your faith!" People cried hot tears, and the history
lessons they had learned by heart, famous battles and magnificent deaths, rose in
them like personal memories. The nonchalant, comfort-loving people of Fez were
unrecognizable. Indifferent to the machine guns aimed at them, they marched into
ambushes. When one of them fell, hit by a bullet, they hardly missed a beat. Their
heart-rending chant became a fraction louder, "O Savior." Those who died were
martyrs and therefore sure to enter paradise, and from the rooftops, the women
responded to each new death with strident calls, "You-you-you!" They rained
down every stone within reach on the soldiers and poured buckets of boiling
water or oil on their heads. From time to time the soldiers pointed their guns
skywards and shot blindly at silhouettes that darted behind walls. Sometimes the
bullets reached their mark, and women, young and old–equally vulnerable to
violent death–fell to the cement floor, their eyes wide with wonder at such an
honor.
Their weapons were absurd in comparison to those of their adversaries:
stones of all sizes, anything they could throw, sometimes their own slippers,
kitchen knives, sticks, butcher's axes, barber's blades, or forks. But joy inspired
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