Women’s Pottery in the Region of Rif

Craftswomen in the Rif region produce items for daily use, such as cookware, kitchenware, and food storage containers, as well as home decorative items like vases and incense buers. Pottery involves several stages that require a range of skills and expertise. The process begins with the careful selection of appropriate clay, locally called idqi, which is ground, sifted, and mixed with water to form a pliable dough. To this mixture, the craftswomen add afrour—shards of broken old pottery. Various tools are used in the process, including stone mills and mortars to grind afrour, as well as a small wooden board called tanjeboud and a smooth stone (azrou) to refine the exterior of pots. After shaping the earthenware, it is left to dry in the sun before being fired in the kiln. The women then ado the pottery with geometric decorations using a black stone called asbou or the leaf juice of the juniper tree. The decorated pottery is subsequently fired in the kiln once more. In the Rif, pottery is exclusively crafted by women, a tradition passed down through generations within families. Today, these craftswomen have formed cooperatives to overcome marketing challenges, increase their income, and improve their working conditions. Furthermore, these cooperatives aim to preserve this heritage and encourage young girls to lea pottery skills.