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“I Vote I Sing”: The Rise of Aesthetic Citizenship in Morocco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2015

Zakia Salime
Zakia Salime*
Affiliation:
Departments of Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.; e-mail: zsalime@sociology.rutgers.edu
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Extract

“We are all enraged. Why don't you arrest us?” chanted protestors in the courtroom during the trial of El-Haqed (the enraged), a twenty-four-year-old rapper from Casablanca. El-Haqed is an active member of the 20 February movement (Feb20), which extended the 2011 North African uprisings to Morocco. Many believe that the civil charges brought several times against him are related to his political activism with Feb20 and his daring lyrics. El-Haqed's song “Long Live the People” is thought to be behind his first arrest because it disrupts the phrase “Long Live the King.” In June 2014, El-Haqed was sentenced to prison for the first time for a period of four months. While attending a sports match, he was arrested on charges of selling tickets on the black market. His multiple arrests, and Feb20 members’ sustained mobilizations against them, reveal that the rapper is not only an iconic figure for youth protesters, but also one of their greatest rallying forces.

Type
Roundtable
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , February 2015 , pp. 136 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

NOTES

1 Salime, Zakia, “A New Feminism? Gender Dynamics in Morocco's 20th February Movement,” Journal of International Women's Studies 13 (2012): 101–14Google Scholar.

2 Ranciere, Jacques, The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible, ed. and trans. Rockhil, Gabriel (London: Bloomsbury, 2004)Google Scholar.

3 All translations are my own. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvWy4ZNaatc (accessed 16 October 2014).

4 Van Nieuwkerk, Karin, “Creating an Islamic Cultural Sphere: Contested Notions of Art, Leisure and Entertainment. An Introduction,” Contemporary Islam 2 (2008): 169–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also LeVine, Mark, “Heavy Metal Muslims: The Rise of a Post-Islamist Public Sphere,” Contemporary Islam 2 (2008): 229–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Bayat, Asef, Making Islam Democratic: Social Movements and the Post-Islamist Turn (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leGIJ7CouRo (accessed 16 October 2014).

7 See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu-K1_zkFks (accessed 16 October 2014).