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

"exclude them from their own culture, uproot them from the set of habits,
attitudes, traditions and customs that constituted their collective identity."
She had listened attentively to her cousin, drinking in his words,
nourishing her thoughts at the spring of his knowledge, asking pertinent
questions, allowing vague notions that had been forming in her subconscious to
emerge.
Their faces close together, they resembled one another now more than
before: their deeply lined foreheads, their sunken, intense eyes, their quagmire
noses, their cheeks like wrinkled fruit, round and brown, their heads identically
and philosophically tilted to one side, a mouth whose upper lip smiled while the
lower was set in a grimace that contradicted the smile and told of the long battle
they had fought between a happy nature and a contrary destiny.
Nonetheless, they seemed to be enjoying the moment and savoring these
unexpected private conversations they were allowed in exchange for their
humanitarianism. Lalla Kenza was pleased to play the role of philanthropist.
Moulay Ali made sure the goods were properly shared, gave orders, and imposed
his quiet thoughtfulness.
Like most of the fortunate people of the city, the old woman had "her
families" whom she cared for all year long. She gave them valuable aid against
their poverty, made sure they had enough to eat, took care of the sick in their
family, and arranged marriage and birth ceremonies. She kept an assortment of
gowns and jewelry to lend to poor brides during the first weeks of their marriage.
She helped fathers pay their children's school fees. She directed their choices and
influenced their decisions. Her wealth gave her authority over the most
200