The Marseillaise : You have just completed the third part of your historical and intimate saga on Morocco and its post-colonial period, “ The country of others. A fresco that evokes the question of mixed identities.
Leila Slimani : All the characters are indeed mixed. In this last volume, it is about resolving contradictions, living with or finding what can be beautiful, alive and interesting in these frictions rather than locking oneself into resentment or revenge. . On this question of identity, I never cease to realize to what extent it is fluid, to what extent it is plastic, it depends on one’s maturity, times or circumstances. It is certainly not something that can be imposed from the outside, which I realize more and more as I get older.
You emphasize that your love of literature was nourished by your passion for others. Does otherness fundamentally remain your way of understanding the world? ?
L.S. : Absolutely. What fascinates me most is this great mystery around which I revolve: what is another? Just looking at people, watching them walk, eat… even at my age, I continue to ask myself: what do they think about, what do they aspire to, where do they come from or what is their life like? ?
Even though the air of the times is vitiated by uninhibited racism conveyed by certain media and on social networks, how do you experience the ambient climate? ?
L.S. : I saw it with a mixture of revolt, anger, sorrow and disappointment. When I think back to the young woman I was at twenty years old when I arrived in France, in 1998 in the middle of the World Cup, and to all this joy which was affirmed, I could not imagine hearing the things I hear today. Even if I’m not totally naive, I believed in a story that would move towards more progress and openness. So yes, it chills me.
Faced with this rise in intolerance, can literature do something? ?
L.S. : Obviously. Quite simply because when you read a book, you can become someone else. By putting ourselves in the other’s place, we realize that what we are is only the result of chance. Suddenly, life seems contingent: literature always begins with a “what if.” This “what if” reestablishes a form of freedom which shows us that we are not slaves to reality. Reality is then not guided only by necessity, it is moving, plastic, made of our choices. What opens us to others, to their vulnerability, develops our empathy and perhaps also our indulgence, our capacity to forgive and accept the errors of others, often mirroring our own weaknesses. For me, literature is a school of empathy and humility.
The work of Sonia Terrab, with whom you launched the 490 column, will be presented during this major interview at the Mucem. outlaw » which denounces article 490 of the Moroccan Penal Code, which punishes sexual relations outside marriage and abortion with prison. Are the lines moving in Morocco on this question of individual freedoms in matters of sexuality? ?
L.S. : Things are moving forward. A few days ago, the Minister of Justice Abdellatif Ouahbi made some announcements which are rather in the right direction, pleading for an end to discriminatory measures against women and for real respect for private life (the minister notably reminded, addressing hoteliers, that requiring a marriage certificate from Moroccan couples “is contrary to the law”, during the oral question session in the House of Councilors on Tuesday May 21, editor’s note). We are also awaiting a reform of the family code, the Moudawana. In recent months, 180-degree consultations have also been held, from feminist associations to Islamists, to achieve a reform of the Penal Code. We hope before summer to have answers on questions that worry us, in particular divorce and equality between men and women with regard to guardianship of children.
You have been living in Lisbon for a few yearsborn. Marseille, itself located on the sea, is it a city that inspires you ?
L.S. : A lot. It’s a city that interests me, fascinates me. It’s a city that mirrors other cities that I know well, like Tangier or Oran. I love ports, I love the sea, I love these very mixed cities like Naples where there are a lot of hidden things going on. I also like the journey, the idea of departure, with what it entails both adventure and melancholy. Marseille is a city that brings together a lot of things that touch me.
Your trilogy took many years of work. What projects are you carrying out now? ?
L.S. : After this trilogy which took me eight years of colossal work, I should rest a little but I don’t know how to stop. From theater to cinema, especially with my friend Sonia Terrab, I have a lot of projects, maybe too many!
