It is about to get dark in the Raval. Little by little, a long line of people began to form at the doors of the Association of Moroccan Women of Catalonia. Inside, the movement intensifies when it is almost seven in the evening. The tables are set, the food is already prepared and the volunteers, together with Faouzia Chati, founder of the organization, move from one place to another finishing the last details. They are about to open the doors to more than 150 diners who, if it weren’t for her, would not have enough to eat on these dates.
The moon has finally reached its waxing phase. Millions of Muslims wait for this moment to start Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. From March 23 to April 21, they will live a period of reflection, and will not be able to eat or drink liquids from sunrise to sunset, when they will meet with their families to eat iftar, a traditional dish with which followers of Islam break the fast during the festivities.
Faouzia knows that there are many people abroad who do not have family in Barcelona and who are in a very vulnerable position. For this reason, this is the eighth year that she has organized a solidarity kitchen. While she finalizes the dishes, not only so that they include everything necessary, but also so that they are well presented, the other volunteers constantly ask her questions. “Fouzia is incredible”, comments one of them.
Every day for 30 nights, they will deliver a dish that includes milk, water, five dates, a hard-boiled egg, a triangle of cow’s cheese, a piece of fruit, a halwa chabakia (sweet), a msmman (bread) and the harira. , a soup that has more than fifteen ingredients, such as legumes, vegetables, spices, meat and noodles, which they prepare every day three hours before the guests arrive and which, according to what they say, is the most desired iftar.
But it is impossible for all these preparations to be cooked for 150 people on the same day. Fouzia, along with friends, students and teachers who participate in her association, started cooking at least a week ago, especially since halwa chabakia, a classic Moroccan sweet, requires days of work and experience in the kitchen.
A sweet aroma of honey and spices invades all the spaces of the Association of Moroccan Women of Catalonia, one street from the Rambla del Raval. In the kitchen, six women converse in Arabic as they prepare halwa chabakia, a sweet that can take more than 15 days to prepare if made in the traditional way, shelling and roasting all the nuts. Among its almost 20 ingredients, seasonings such as cinnamon, saffron, star anise and orange blossom water stand out, responsible for the delicious smell that intensifies as the afternoon progresses.
It is Wednesday, March 15, with a week to go before the moon reaches its waxing phase and marks the start of the month of Ramadan. Faouzia Chati knows that she is already running against time. Halwa is only one part of iftar and they must prepare at least 4,500 of them, considering that they expect more than a hundred people during the 30-night festivities.
In the hands of six women, the sweets are taking shape. While Malika flattens the dough in a machine similar to those used to make pasta, another colleague finishes this process with a rolling pin, then cuts and shapes it into the classic halwa shape by twisting the dough with her fingers. Ilham then deep-fries them in oil until they reach a golden color and Fatima dips them in a hot mixture of honey, sugar, water, orange, lemon and cinnamon. This final stage is essential to give the last burst of flavor to the bite, which is now ready for Faouzia, who has gone from one phase to another, to finish decorating them with sesame seeds.
While everything happens at the same time, they talk to each other and laugh, even though they have already been in the kitchen for many hours. They all know exactly what they are doing and carry it out naturally. They learned to cook from an early age from their grandmothers, mothers or sisters, as is the case with Ilham Ech-chahy. Although she is not an active part of the association, she always helps Faouzia —whom she has known for 7 years— to prepare the solidarity Ramadan. She loves to innovate in the kitchen, just the day before she made a carrot flan that she shows pictures of on her phone.
He arrived in Spain 13 years ago at the age of 23 and without knowing the language. She came from a large family and she didn’t know anyone here, but her husband encouraged her to learn Spanish. “There are husbands who don’t let women learn, work and earn a salary,” says Ilham as she fries the halwa with ease. She is now the mother of four children, her youngest is just 4 months old, but she wants to give them the knowledge about Moroccan cuisine. Although maintaining her culture is not always easy. Wearing the jihab was more comfortable in Morocco, she says, where many people “don’t like people with veils.” They don’t understand her clothing, and in summer she is told “Oh, how hot!”, because she wears a dress with sleeves and pants.
“I am of Moroccan origin and I have to maintain it,” says Ilham, who is preparing her eldest daughter for when it is her turn to participate in Ramadan. Little by little, the children are incorporated: at first they fast for a couple of hours or just a day, until the women start their periods and the men show signs of puberty, such as beards. He explains that his children like it because they feel part of it. “Since we are not in our countries, they have to know what our religion is, Islam,” says Ilham.
At her side, dipping the already-fried halwa into a golden liquid whose main ingredient is honey, is Fátima Moravech. Around the age of 10, she began her relationship with the kitchen at the hands of her mother. She knew Fouzia many years ago, but two years ago she joined the Moroccan Women’s Association. She arrived in Barcelona at the age of 22 with two young children, who were later joined by two others. But unlike Ilham, her little ones are not as connected to Moroccan gastronomy and are more used to the recipes here. She herself tells that she has adopted the preparations of the place where she has lived for 42 years now. Currently, she is learning Catalan, one of the classes taught by the entity.
Malika, who is flattening the dough on the machine, is Fatima’s lifelong friend. They are like sisters and live next to each other. “Ramadan is very healthy for health, because the body rests from so much food, blood sugar and blood pressure go down,” she says as she moves to the table where they are making the shape of the halwa. Although she constantly has to listen to other people saying “How come you’re not hungry?!”, she declares that fasting times don’t cost her, she’s used to it. Again, the incomprehension of the rest is latent, although Faouzia clarifies: “They understand what Ramadan is, only that there is a lot of racism here”, while he puts the sweets that are already ready in a box that they will keep until the first day of fasting, when they open the community kitchen.
Of all the women who are helping Faouzia, only one of them will be there on the day Ramadan begins. The rest will meet with their families, where they must also prepare the iftar. A group of volunteers will be in charge of distributing the food that they are now preparing. However, when the halwa is finished, they will return to the association in the morning to prepare more. The ones they are doing are only enough for a couple of days.
It was Faouzia Chati’s idea to found a women’s association, after spending 17 years in organizations where the majority of the members were men. At first there were barely 30, but now there are 150 students who, with five teachers, teach Spanish, Catalan and cooking, as well as Arabic for the children and religion “because if they don’t learn here, they can’t learn anywhere anymore”. She also goes as a yoga teacher on Fridays, because she says that women like it.
His story is a little different from the rest. She has a degree in philosophy and in Marrakech she was a teacher. She arrived in 1989 to treat a vision problem and here she met her Catalan / Moroccan husband. Her mission over the years has been to help other women who come to Barcelona. “When they come here from Morocco, most of them have a triangle, from home to school, from school to the market, then home and nothing else. I want these women to open their eyes to the world and learn their rights and obligations”, says Faouzia, and she says that word of mouth has increased the community every year.
This year they marched again for the 8M to ask for equality between both sexes. “Because women work the same, but men always earn more. He always fights, but we never get anywhere, ”he says, gesturing. She has used that same struggle to establish her organization, because “without fighting you don’t get anywhere,” she says. She also teaches her students to defend themselves when they have had to face racism in the city: “When a person rides the subway and insults them, they lower their heads. I tell them: you can call the security guard and report it. You have to respect and they have to respect you”. Sometimes they have even shouted phrases like: “Go to your land!”. That is why it is so important for her to teach how to face these situations.
Faouzia also learned to cook from her mother since she was little. “Since I came here, I have never changed my kitchen,” she says. She has transferred this knowledge to her two daughters, already university students. “On holidays they go into the kitchen and make everything perfect. I sometimes say: How did they do it?”, she explains. Her husband also likes to cook. “He makes tremendous paellas, everyone loves them,” she says, laughing, because she has never managed to make one like it. Her His specialty is Moroccan food.Although Marrakech is a more open city, he says that when he was teaching in a remote town, having a man enter the kitchen was a shame.
The struggle is also what has led her to want to feed, many times thanks to the money that she and her husband contribute, hundreds of people during the month of Ramadan, for 8 years now. This idea was born from wanting to help those who did not have enough to eat, especially during the festivities and considering that they cannot eat food or water while the sun shines on the day. This is how, year after year, she has gone from one place to another with her community kitchen. On one occasion they even did it in a Catholic church, but this time they organized it in the association, located in calle Sant Oleguer del Raval. Over time, the number of attendees has grown, which is why she has started preparing the food earlier. “It’s not just Moroccans who come anymore, but Spaniards, South Americans… The door is open to everyone,” says Faouzia.
At the door of the association, the queue begins to break up and everyone wants to enter the solidarity dining room at the same time. A volunteer stops them and makes them pass in an orderly fashion. Faouzia’s husband is helping too, handing them each a bowl for Fouzia to give them a big spoonful of Harira—the soup they’ve made in a huge pot that’s all that’s left to complete the iftar.
The majority are men who are filling the two dining rooms that they have prepared. Everything happens very fast and the harira begins to end quickly. A general murmur invades the space and some ask for another portion. But Faouzia must tell them that there is no more, although they begin to give the iftar that they had saved to eat after serving all the diners.
Not even 15 minutes have passed, and just as quickly as they arrived, diners begin to leave the space. Some say thank you before leaving. This time everything has happened so fast that they have not been able to recite the Adhan, the call to prayer that is always done before eating. They hope to be able to do it the next day, although they believe that, as the days go by, more people will arrive because the word spreads. Yesterday was the first day of Ramadan. Today, and until April 21, they will have to prepare everything again and cook once more for those who break their fast every day in this sacred month or, simply, for those who need it.
