Jan 20th, 2020      - Azilal High Atlas 

Holding my hot coffee, I peak through the foggy window that I kept tightly closed using thick industrial plastic covering all windows from the outside. I open the window and lift the plastic up and see a brave woman washing her family's clothes in ice cold water.

This Brave Azilal woman who works hard to provide for her family, with intermittent electricty that I myself experience living there, but I am lucky to only have to handwash my own clothes in pre heated water.

She cannot afford to heat up enough water to wash all clothes indoors so she heads down to this river, rolls up her sleeves and pants to just below her knees and proceeds to handwash clothes in ice cold water, she beats the clothes with a thick wooden stick ridding them of any dirt, rinses them and then  squeezes water out by rolling and stomping on them. For no less than two hours, until she is finished, then hangs them over branches surrounding the river, and at times on the trees around my place, and hopes that some sun will peak through the clouds to dry the clothes in the next 2 days. 

I'm proud of this woman, who I will be honored to add to my team of weavers should she have time and be interested, and all the women in my community who are the pure incarnation of resistance talent and dedication.  I handwash my clothes too and it takes 2 days or so to dry them, usually tshirts and pants, but when I washed my winter coat it took 5 days to dry part time, and it is an in and our process, taking the clothes indoors at night and taking them out in the morning

The abrupt quarantine has kept me away from my mountain home, but it's also given me a chance to reflect further and plan more ways to help these women I'm so proud of both in the high atlas and middle atlas mountains where I am from. 

Assya Moussaid 

Berber Rug Artist/Humanist living in the high Atlas mountains.
Instagram.com/zayaniarugs