Women were the prize, but now Zohra is taking men on at their own game
Zohra Sidki competes in a dangerous game where women were once the prize.
A hundred horsemen are preparing for battle. Six tribes from Northern Morocco have gathered in the village of Zniyed for a game that dates back 800 years.
Mata is a display of manhood as much as it is a game. Tribesmen, riding bareback, fight for possession of a female idol, using force if they have to. In past years, some have even used knives.
Traditionally, the rider who crosses the finish line with the idol won the hand of the most beautiful woman in his tribe.
But today the men no longer take a woman as a prize, they compete against one.
Zohra Sidki is the only woman to have taken the field for Mata.
"I'm obsessed to the point of sickness with this game," she says.
Zohra doesn't know her age but thinks she's in her late 40s.
As a child, she would take food and water to her father on horseback as he worked the fields. She quickly learnt how to control a horse and became enamoured with the freedom of being on horseback.
"When I was 11, I used to play with the boys and I would ride on the beach," Zohra says.
"When people saw me, they contacted the police. They told them, 'There is a young girl and you wouldn't imagine it, she is riding a horse.'
"People would come from everywhere to watch me."
As one of the few animals mentioned in the Koran, the horse holds a powerful position in the Islamic faith.
As champion rider Ahmad Fergani explains, "To be on horseback is to be protected by God."
But horses aren't for everyone.
One day the police came to young Zohra's house. The authorities were nervous about seeing a girl on horseback.
"The mayor said he wouldn't let me ride. I told him to give me my horse, and that was it."
Despite protests, Zohra rode in a local competition and won, cementing her reputation as a talented horsewoman.
When she heard Mata was being held again, she quickly signed up.
A display of manhood
It's a dangerous contest. This year is no different.
"We wear white because it's the colour of a funeral shroud. We are ready to be buried if we die during the race," says Ahmad Fergani.
Some men are aghast that a woman is competing. One rider hints that Zohra is mentally unstable.
Another says it's shameful:
"It's dangerous and not appropriate for her to have a horse between her legs. I would not allow my daughter ride in Mata."
Zohra isn't intimidated by the criticism. She says most of the men are happy to have her.
"They respect me and I respect them," she says.
"The problems arise because they all want me to play on their team. It's special to have a woman."
A saint's game
Before the race, riders head to pay their respects at the mountain-top tomb of Moulay Abdeslam, the saint who first started Mata.
The Sufi saint is said to have brought the game home from central Asia in the 13th century.
During his travels, he witnessed "buzkashi" — an Afghan sport still popular today where riders vie to put a goat or calf corpse into a goal.
Buzkashi itself was brought across the central steppe to Persia by Mongol hordes.
The sport took hold in north Africa and mixed with local beliefs, becoming something uniquely Moroccan.
When the saint's direct descendants, the Baraka family, revived the game, they faced a common cultural conundrum: how to honour a historic tradition steeped in patriarchal attitudes that many now find unacceptable.
Women at its heart
A brutal horseback game may seem an unlikely vehicle for social progress, but the Baraka family were determined for it to be just that.
Patriarch Abdelhadi Baraka put his daughter Nabila in charge.
"It's important for a woman to lead this event," Nabila says.
"Women hold an extremely important place in Mata. They prepare everything for the events — not just the doll itself."
The winning rider no longer gets to choose a bride as trophy, but women are still objectified — literally — in the contest to seize the "bride" idol.
The doll is the embodiment of fertility, which Mata celebrates at the coming of spring — seasons are still key for these agrarian tribespeople.
Before the race, older tribeswomen hold ceremonies to create the Mata idol by binding together straw and cloth.
They decorate her with gold fabric and pearls and ask for blessings from the Prophet Mohammed.
Culture is catching up
Morocco liberalised its strict family law code in 2004, and it is now considered one of the most progressive for women in the Arab world.
Yet culture is slower to adapt, particularly in conservative and religious rural areas. As a result, few women have had the chance to learn to ride.
"People tell me to start an association where we could train the girls of the city and we would train boys, too," Zohra says.
"They told me this, but I don't have the means to start it. I don't have a sponsor.
"I have a female friend who wants to ride next year. Let's see what happens."
But this year, Zohra is on her own and despite the physical danger she's in, she's prepared to give it her all.
The race begins
As the riders take their mark, Nabila Baraka hands the idol to Zohra.
She brandishes it high in the air as tribeswomen sing to her below. Her defiant display marks the start of the contest.
Within seconds, a rider snatches the idol from her and gallops away. She steadies herself, then charges off after the frontrunner.
The valley soon fills with screams of emotion and adrenaline as teams chase each other for the prize.
The team with the Mata doll charges up into the hills surrounding the pitch, desperate to gain some distance from their rivals.
The other teams are close behind, riders scream directions at each other. Horses foam at the mouth.
The riders struggle to stay upright in the melee. Falling or being knocked off means being trampled.
Zohra is lost in the chaos as riders lunge at the idol, attempting to wrest it away as the holding team defends it.
For half an hour, the Mata idol is passed between riders of the leading team until one rider breaks away.
At a mad pace, the rider and his horse leave the other teams behind,looping back to the starting point to take victory.
Spectators throng around his horse as he holds the idol high in triumph.
This time, the winner is a young man called Ahmed Mchich; the cousin of former champion Ahmad Fergani.
Zohra is exhausted but happy.
She'll be back next year, determined to win.
"I'm more advanced than the men, with my bravery. I've been brave since I was young. God gave me this strength."
Credits:
Reporter: Brietta Hague
Photographs: Angels Melange
Video: Angels Melange and Brietta Hague, edited by Jack Fisher
Fixer: Hanaa El Asri
Editors: Annika Blau and Leigh Tonkin
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