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Orientalism Is Alive and Kicking on the BBC

Andrew Zimmern, a TV host and food system advocate : “learned everything I needed to learn about Moroccan culture in that room. That the Muslim women took sanctuary in that kitchen… it changed the way I looked at womanhood.”

How many Moroccan women has Zimmern seen or known in his life? There is no Western-like Moroccan women with 'Western culture' or a hybrid of cultures, with a very similar culture in the kitchen, at work, without a headscarf. I have been in Morocco and at least in 5 of its cities from the south to the north. Zimmern knows next to nothing about 'Moroccan Muslim women in their diverse 'culture' and outlook. 

Because he met one kind of women, he generalised his experience on all Moroccan women and the 'Moroccan culture': on the one on the field, the one in the factory, the one in shorts, the one wearing a headscarf, the student in jeans, the one in sport, the artist, the girl that takes her bras in a concert, the underground prostitutes …

Here are snapshots from mainstream websites: example 1, example 2, example 3

Women agricultural workers are organising to resist slavery



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