Exploring Feminist Resistance: Women's Discontent in Siham Benchekroun’s Oser Vivre

Abstract

Moroccan women's writings offer a multifaceted portrayal of the female experience within society. The works in question employ a variety of genres, including autobiographies and fiction, to provide a nuanced exploration of identities, livelihoods, and the female experience. Among these writers, Siham Benchekroun stands out for her distinctive style, which exudes a sense of empowerment. Her novel Oser Vivre transcends temporal and spatial boundaries, embodying the resilience of Moroccan women. This paper examines how Benchekroun seeks to dismantle patriarchal oppression. Using qualitative literary analysis, the study dissects her fiction, with a focus on the representation of women's issues, including marriage, body image, divorce, and child labor. Close textual and intersectional analysis, coupled with thematic categorization, is employed to scrutinize the corpus through the lens of Fatima Mernissi's feminist critique, Judith Butler's gender performativity, Pierre Bourdieu's symbolic violence, and Laura Mulvey's male gaze trope. The results show that Benchekroun depicts a variety of women's acts of resistance, with a particular emphasis on self-liberation. Her novel demonstrates the interconnectedness of gender with social class, religion, and culture, and how internalized social norms perpetuate oppression.