At 17, the age of friendship oaths and Rimbaud poems, a young girl smokes a cigarette outside her bedroom window in Marrakech. This harmless transgression triggers her mother’s violent fury, forcing the teenager to flee her home. The mother issues an ultimatum: she must provide a certificate of virginity in order to return home. <\/p>\n\n
Rim Battal, Moroccan artist and poet, a leading figure of her generation, has written her first novel. With her powerful writing, Rim Battal takes an intimate memory as a starting point to speak of freedom, sexuality, feminism and the weight of patriarchy. Accompanied by cellist Lola Malique, she offers a performance reading of her text. <\/p>\n\n