Pile Knot Rug

Fatima Haddash

When Fatima Haddash was young, her family picked up from the southern village of Tinghir and moved to Oued Ifrane. Despite her distant roots, everyone in her village now affectionately knows her as ‘mama.’ Fatima knows how to make all the types of carpets that Association Nahda creates. With every carpet she sells, she hopes to use the money to invest it in the future of her eight children and many more grandchildren.

Hafida Mehboub

Hafida Mehboub is known by the members of Association Nahda as a talented, hard working, and motivated weaver. Though she never attended school as a girl, her driven personality has landed her in math and literacy classes provided by a local association. She plans on investing the money she earns from Anou in her children.

Fatima Gourami

Fatima was born in Oued Ifrane and has lived in the village for most of her life. Despite the passing of her husband, she has survived and thrived because of her warm personality and incredibly positive outlook on life. Fatima is an integral member of Association Nahda because she is not only willing to try new things, but she is also willing to teach what she has learned to the other members.

Hanan Sadaoui

Born in 1980 in Kasr Moui, in the region of Errachidia (28km away from Goulmima). Hanan Sadaoui moved from her hometown to Khemisset with her family and learned how to weave from her mother. When she got married, Hanan moved with her husband to his village (Oued Ifrane) where she joined the association he founded for the local weavers. Hanan is the proud mother of two, a boy and a girl and she hopes to develop her weaving skills and help her husband in developing opportunities for their local communities.

El Kibera Tahiri

El Kibera Tahiri was born in Oued Ifrane and runs a small store that sells clothing to local villagers. El Kibera joined the association in 2012 and specializes in all the products that the association makes. She hopes that through her sales on Anou, she’ll earn enough money to organize a Moroccan craft fair in New York. In the future, she wants to become fluent in both French and English.

Aicha Mhdaoui

Aicha Mehdoui was born in Oued Ifrane and specializes in all the products that the association produces. She hopes to use her income with the sales to build a new house in the village.

Nbarcha Bally

Nbarcha Bally is 33 years old and married from Oued Ifrane. She is the mother of a son and a daughter. She has learned weaving like most of the local women from her own mother since an early age. She is a hard worker and puts long hours to help her husband with their household expenses and their children’s education. She joined the association not only to help her family but also to develop her skills by attending the training sessions for horizontal and vertical weaving.

Fatima Hafsi

Fatima Hafsi was born in 1969 in Oued Ifrane. She is married and has two daughters. She has recently joined the association but has known weaving for a long time, learning it from her mother. She attended school until the third grade in primary school only. From her experience, she wishes to teach the young girls who are dropping out of school nowadays how to weave in order to give them purpose but also to pursue the transmission of her craft and make sure it doesn’t disappear.