Victims, Wives, and Concubines: The Spanish Civil War and Relations between Moroccan Troops and Spanish Women

Abstract

It has generally been argued that during and after the Spanish Civil War the issue of Moroccan troops interacting with Spanish women was both a difficult and highly charged matter for the Spanish Nationalists. One scene in a Spanish film Libertarias sums up the standard perception of this interaction. Toward the end of the film, a contingent of Moroccan soldiers takes a group of milicianas by surprise and slaughters them with knives. At the same time, a nun, who had accompanied the militia-women, is forcefully undressed by two Moroccans while others are seen expressing sadistic enjoyment at the sight. Fortunately for the nun, a Spanish officer intervenes in time to save her from rape and possible death.¹ This film represents the typical view of relations between Moroccan soldiers and Spanish women during the Civil War—a relationship of sexual aggressors and sexual victims. Given this common viewpoint, it would be difficult to imagine that there were in fact voluntary carnal encounters, love stories, and marriages between the two groups. However, these existed—even to an extent that suggests that they were more than incidental.

Acknowledgments: I am immensely grateful to Shannon E. Fleming who spent time and effort in reviewing this paper and providing suggestions that considerably contributed to its improvement. I also thank my supervisors Henk te Velde and Eric Storm for their continuous feedback and challenging questions. I am indebted to the association of Moroccan ancient combatants, its secretary El Amine Rqibate and its branches in Alcazarquivir, Tetouan, and Nador for bringing me in touch with war veterans. Also many thanks to the people in the Cuartel de Regulares in Ceuta who helped me track and interview Moroccan veterans in that territory. I am especially thankful to Mustafa El Merroun for granting me exclusive access to the transcripts of interviews that he conducted in the 1990s.