Morocco’s little known tradition of women troupes who perform the famous Fantasia (“tbourida”) equestrian ceremony is the doctoral focus of Fulbright scholar Gwyneth Talley from the University of California at Los Angeles, who discussed her research findings at TALIM on Monday, April 23. Gwyneth shared insights into the culture of tbourida and how the revival in women’s equestrian sports, in particular the tbourida, coincided with the 2004 passage of Morocco’s new personal status code, the Mudawana.
The following afternoon, Gwyneth met separately with participants from TALIM’s Women’s Arabic Literacy program for a lively exchange on the same topic, this time in Moroccan dialect.
Bibliography and Further Reading:
Bimberg, Edward L.
1999 The Moroccan Goums: Tribal Warriors in a Modern War. London: Greenwood Press.
Daumas, Eugène
1968(2012) The Horses of the Sahara. S.M. Ohlendorf, transl. Ausin, TX: The University of Texas Press.
1971(2012) The Ways of the Desert. S.M. Ohlendorf, transl. Austin, TX: The University of Texas Press.
Djebar, Assia
1993[1985] Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade. D.S. Blair, transl. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Estrin, James
2015 A Female Fantasia In Morocco. In Lens. New York Times: New York Times.
Mernissi, Fatima
1994 Dreams of Trespass, Tales of a Harem Girlhood. New York City, NY: Perseus Books.
Sedrati, Azeddine; Tavernier, Roger & Wallet, Bernard
1997 L’art de la Fantasia: Cavaliers et Chevaux du Maroc. Casablanca: Plume.
Talley, Gwyneth U.J.
2017 Tbourida: Performing Traditional Equestrianism as Heritage Tourism in Morocco. In Equestrian Cultures in Global & Local Contexts. M.T. Adelman, Kirrilly, ed. New York: Springer.
Zand, Sahar
2016 Morocco’s warrior women beating men at their own game. Pp. 2:39. London: BBC News.
2016 The Horsewomen of Fantasia. In BBC Women’s Hour. S. Zand, ed. Woman’s Hour. London: BBC.
