14 Facts About Fatema Chebchoub

Fatema Chebchoub, known by her stage name, Al-Chebchouba, was a Moroccan academic, actor, director, activist, comedian, poet.

Fatema Chebchoub was one of the first Moroccan women to write and direct theater performances, and one of the few to incorporate elements of traditional theatrical heritage in her productions.

Fatema Chebchoub's parents, both performers of the Moroccan form of popular performance known as Halqa, which is a kind of public storytelling, died while she was very young.

Fatema Chebchoub began acting as a child in the 1960s and directed her first production in the 1980s.

Fatema Chebchoub later moved on to writing and performing one-woman shows.

Fatema Chebchoub was the only trained female Hlayqia, the central figure in a traditional form of public story-telling performance known as the Halqa.

Fatema Chebchoub performed her Halqas either as solo acts or with her troop which was known as ASYAS.

Fatema Chebchoub toured internationally to perform it in countries such as Australia, the United States, and Syria.

Fatema Chebchoub worked in television, writing a 30-episode TV series for the Moroccan channel Al Aoula which she directed and starred in, and creating a film production company.

Fatema Chebchoub began by teaching French in a primary school, and later taught theater at Moulay Ismail University in Meknes.

Fatema Chebchoub was pursuing her PhD on stage sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, at the time of her passing.

Fatema Chebchoub presented a memorial service at the University of Pennsylvania held for the Israeli poet Dahlia Ravikovitch, where she translated and performed Ravikovitch's poem a A Dress of Fire.

In 2002, with a grant from the Greenfield Intercultural Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Fatema Chebchoub produced a documentary film, entitled From Heart to Heart: A Documentary of Feelings and Attitudes towards the Incidents of Sept 11,2001, from Arab-Americans in the Philadelphia area.

Fatema Chebchoub died at age 53 in Skhirat, near Rabat, in a swimming accident, on August 9,2006.