Casa Árabe and the Capitán Swing publishing firm are presenting “El poder de las madres. Por un nuevo sujeto revolucionario” (“The Power of Mothers: For a new revolutionary subject”), an assertive book by French-Moroccan essayist, political scientist and activist Fatima Ouassak.

The book shows the political potential held by mothers when facing the oppressive system of the State. It forms a feminist manifesto on the social strength and strategy possessed by mothers when dealing with racism and structural sexism.

“At times, during moments when there is a racist media fury, when faces that look like mine are associated with dangers that need to be neutralized, I feel a terrible fear. A fear that one day they will come take my children away from me and put them on a train to some unknown place. And that no one will lift a finger to stop it”: Fatima Ouassak.

Since the advent of the Fifth Republic, the French State has waged a latent war against a part of its population. Young people from working class neighborhoods who descend from post-colonial immigrants suffer a daily operation of “disinfantilization”: they are not treated as children but instead as threats to the system’s survival. How many have died as a result of this? How many have been murdered by the police with impunity? How many mothers have cried in court for their children victimized by racist crimes?

Through the struggles by The Madwomen of the Place Vendôme in the 1980’s and those by the Mothers’ Front at present, Ouassak shows the potential political strategy that mothers can carry out, in this book. Her message is truly revolutionary: by breaking the social pact of temperance that unwittingly binds them to the oppressive system, mothers will become protective guardians.

Ouassak will be talking with author Marta Malo, a translator, researcher and feminist activist who forms part of La Laboratoria, and with Houda Akrikez, a mother, intercultural mediator, grassroots activity, human rights defender and the founder and spokeswoman for the Tabadol Association, through which she fights to get electricity back for the Madrid neighborhood known as La Cañada Real. The event will be introduced by Karim Hauser, coordinator of Casa Árabe’s Cultural Programs.

Further information: https://en.casaarabe.es/eventos-arabes/show/the-power-of-mothers