Resilience and Resistance: Amazigh Women’s Agency in French Colonial Morocco

ABSTRACT This article examines the agency displayed by Amazigh women during the disruptive period of French colonial intervention in Morocco. It challenges dominant narratives that portray them solely as passive victims or marginalized actors. The study explores the colonial experiences of Amazigh women from diverse rural and tribal communities, and highlights their active engagement, resilience, and multifaceted expressions of agency throughout the colonial crisis. Central to the analysis is how Amazigh women employed their oral poetry as a powerful form of cultural expression and resistance to counter the reifying effects of colonial power. Considered repositories of public discourse, these poetic artforms functioned as sites of contestation and negotiation, because they enabled Amazigh women to voice their perspectives, challenge patriarchal norms, and subvert colonial gender impositions. By focusing on their voices and experiences, this study disrupts dominant narratives that have obscured their agency and perpetuated essentialist stereotypes. It underscores the importance of intersectionality, power relations, and discursive struggles in understanding the dynamics of gender, resistance, and identity formation during the French colonial era in Morocco.