The misery and splendour of the "chikha". Art as consecration in "Rue du pardon" by Mahi Binebine

Abstract

In Rue du pardon (Street of Forgiveness), Mahi Binebine presents us with a marvellous tale in which a child confronts the ugliness of his pitiless environment and the monstrosity of his failing parents, guilty of a double transgression. These trials transform the tale into a novel, and the exposed child (abandoned to his fate) into an emancipated being. After the experience of rejection and the traumatic ordeal of rape, the heroine, saved and guided by the diva Serghinia, finds in the performing arts (dance and song) a saving refuge and, above all, a voice that enables her to express and exorcise abjection. The abused female body is resculpted into a living work of art. As in other novels, notably L'Ombre du poète, Terre d'ombre brûlée and Le Seigneur vous le rendra, Mahi Binebine's Rue du pardon places the artist at the center of representation. This article attempts to show how the novelist, by rehabilitating the chikha, a female artistic figure from Morocco's popular heritage, promotes a discreet feminism in which art becomes a means of access to freedom and a denunciation of social hypocrisy.