“The Strike of Mecca”
A short story from the series of 1001 nights of “NOT your Scheherazade” by Samar Zughool.
In 2011, I went to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, with my mother.
I did not go there for answers; I already had them, but I went in my search for closure! For any kind of closure!
At the yard of the black stone in Mecca, a male-dominant voice crapped over the microphone.
“Women shall move to the back, for men to pray in the front, women shall move to the back for men to pray in the front”.
My mother and I looked at each other and started complaining and objecting.
A woman spotted us from nearby; she came to us and approved our dissatisfaction.
” I come from Morocco, I am a professor, I am a holder of a PHD degree, and I did not work this hard to pray behind any man!
I am not praying behind any man today!” – She said.
She sat on the floor and asked us to join her for a strike!
My mother and I joined her immediately, and more women joined us in a strike on the floor.
It was a moment of glory, a satisfactory sensation, a fulfilment I had never felt before.
But in a few minutes, the police arrived with sticks and splatted our crowd.
On that day, I did not pray!
But today, for the woman who self-identified as “A woman with PhD from Morocco.”
And for my mother’s pure great peaceful, and powerful soul,
I pray!
I pray but in my own way!
We did not sit down to talk about our rights.
I do not want you to give me my rights!
I want to uproot them from your patriarchal throat and for your misogynic existence to fall down dead.
I am an outraged belly dancer, and NO, I will not dance!
I will not dance on your patriarchal grave or even in the graveyard!
But I will burn your orientalist misogyny down into flames of ashes and blow it into the wind as if you never exist.
No clash of civilisations but witches rising above your Patriarchy, Imperialism and male domination!
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About the 1001 Nights of “NOT your Scheherazade by Samar Zughool”,
This text-video story is part of the 1001 nights of “NOT your Scheherazade” series of performances and stories by Samar Zughool.
This series presents ten different stories in each performance as a reflective process.
By gathering recipients’ reactions in a collective journey, the performer will eventually make the “NOT your Scheherazade” book of 1001 nights, each night referring to one story or tale.
The book, “The 1001 Nights of NOT Your Scheherazade”, is currently in progress based on its series of experimental performances, and it may become one day an alternative to overcome the misogynist, patriarchal, and Orientalist book so known as “The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights.”