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Opinion by Arezki Daoud:
Competition between the regimes of Algeria and Morocco has gone mainstream. Now Algerians and Moroccans are battling each other over the silliest things, from who presumably owns specific foods to who should claim ownership of specific arts forms. This ridiculous bickering has now spilled over to clothing, more specifically, hordes of Algerians and Moroccans on Internet are yelling at and insulting each other to claim that each group owns the Haiek, a full body vail that has disappeared decades ago.
Before this latest and ongoing pointless debate, the two groups fought one another over the Rai music, couscous, the Zellige design, this traditional mosaic in earthenware tiles, and so many other topics. Witnessing their interactions has been both funny and outright depressing, and certainly ridiculous.
There has been a toxic competition which opposes the two camps on all possible and imaginable subjects, turning the Internet into a platform of stormy and disrespectful exchanges between people that have the exact same culture and traditions. Twitter is one of the platforms of choice for these Moroccans and Algerians who are bickering like children, often in virulent ways, while their regimes are ruling without any oversight.
Early this month, a new post on Twitter ignited another fight between Algerians and Moroccans over the Haiek. Both communities are seeking to rewrite the cultural and religious history of their respective countries. The haiek is a white fabric made of fine wool or silk, worn by women and which covers them entirely. Appeared in the 19th century, the North Africans of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia traditionally wore the haiek, but is started to progressively fade away right after the three countries gained their independence. Recently, in the midst of the Hirak protests of 2019, there has been a brief resurgence of the Haik in Algeria, as a way for women to underscore their identity. But the Hijab, imported from the Middle East, has largely replaced the Haik.
The controversy started when a Moroccan website promoted several posts on its Twitter account dedicated to the history of the Haiek. “In view of International Women’s Day, Moroccan women went out to Tangier yesterday dressed in the traditional Haiek to revive the old popular Moroccan tradition.” It goes on to add that “the haiek was traditionally sewn in the Moroccan city of Fez before being exported to other cities in North Africa.”
While Moroccan tweeters expressed their pride in comments, Algerians were quick to respond. Algerian journalist at Al Jazeera, Khadidja Bengana, reacted in her own way by putting on a haiek to explain that this traditional Algerian dress was used by the freedom fighters during the war of national liberation (1954-1962). Twitter users on both sides pushed and pulled with arguments favoring ownership of the Haik by one country or the other.
Fueled by the controversy, Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune called during the March 8’s International Women’s Day ceremonies, for the “protection of the national cultural heritage and the traditional Algerian dress,” and urged action to prevent “imitation, theft and attempts of misappropriation.”
The food-fight over the Haiek is just a pretext for the two to attack one another. No matter what the subject matter, the animosity between Algerians and Moroccans has gotten so deep and entrenched that everything becomes a pretext to fuel it again and again. In both clans, everyone proclaims anything as belonging to their cultural heritage, just to undermine and ridicule the other. Every topic is used for provocation, ignorance, and contempt for the other. All of this could stop if the leaders of the regimes in Algiers and Rabat show real leadership and focus on improving their people’s lives. But that won’t happen anytime.
