Words by Smiley Team
An inspiring art project in Morocco is helping to educate isolated young girls who live in the Atlas mountains.
Nathalie Heller Loufrani was encouraged to get involved in the project and give back after living in Morocco for a few years, where she stumbled upon some Zindekh tapestries in her Riad, and “fell in love”.
“From that moment on, I never stopped wanting to know more about these tapestries and those who made them,” she says. “This man who had discovered them by chance 25 years ago had perceived that there was something singular and unique about them. He had acquired a very large number of them without any particular purpose.”
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Nathalie learned that they were made by women in the Atlas mountains in Azilal Valley and decided to go and visit them and get involved – “We wanted to help these women,” she says.
Throughout history, Berber women have ensured the survival of their cultural know-how and traditions by embroidering – they exchanged messages and secrets in the grooves of tapestries and offered themselves status.
With raw materials, they managed to create real works of art, with complex geometric shapes, and wrote codes that men couldn’t read. When a woman is born in the Azilal Valley, she knows she has a mission at a very young age: to learn to weave to follow in the know-how of her mother, her grandmother, and the women who inhabited this land long before her.
When Nathalie went into the mountains to speak to the women about what they did, she learned that they would work on these tapestries and keep them in their houses. But some women told her they didn’t make them anymore – as they had access to other ways to make money and were more time poor.
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Nathalie decided to collect the tapestries and started the project Lady Berbère along with her friend Stéphanie Cassan, where she exhibits the beautiful art and raises money for the women to become educated. “I have a collection of around 230 tapestries,” she says, “and there's no other collection like this.”
She decided not to sell them, but wanted to keep them for their beauty. During the exhibitions, Nathalie shares information about the women in the mountains and people can donate money to the cause of the association Semnid, in charge of the education of isolated young girls.
“We decided to work with the Semnid Association to help and finance education for the girls,” she says. “We have already raised funds for 10 girls who now have a place where they can sleep, eat, and go to school. These young girls really want to go to school, rather than just stay at home and do tapestry.”
Based in Azizal, the Semnid association created in 2012, aims to support the education of rural girls between 12 and 18 years old. Now, three homes each welcoming 15 young girls, often orphans of father or mother, recreate a warm and studious family atmosphere.
The association covers all living and tuition costs, accommodation, food, school materials, clothing. And thanks to Semnid, every young girl can continue her studies and keep a link with her family and her village.
Because these women live in the mountains, they have no opportunity to go to school. But with the funding from these exhibitions, they are provided a place to stay around one hour from their house, where they can also go to get educated. .
Nathalie has had four exhibitions so far and hopes to make a book featuring photos of the tapestries in the future to raise money for the girls. Click here to find out more.
