ABSTRACT
During the reign of King Hassan II (r. 1961–1999), tens of thousands of Moroccans were imprisoned, tortured, or killed in a period known as the “years of lead.” After the king's death, King Mohammad VI established the Equity and Reconciliation Committee (ERC) to collect testimony about these human rights violations and provide reparations. This chapter examines gender and memory in the reconciliation process through an analysis of Leila Kilani's 2008 documentary Nos Lieux Interdits (Our Forbidden Places). Kilani's film seeks to recover the lost history of these years by focusing on the memory of those affected by Hassan II's reign and demonstrates the complex nature of memory and history in contemporary Morocco. Nos Lieux Interdits seeks to give voice to the women who have been silenced in the official record by relying upon a form of history that is traditionally used by women – oral storytelling. By gendering this history through the use of oral histories and the incorporation of specifically female memories, Kilani addresses the silences of the reconciliation process and the state history of this era. In doing so, she subverts the official narrative of the years of lead as established by the Moroccan state.
