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Annons
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Hassan Hajjaj: I've been working in this way for years now. I want to show something particular to Marrakesh, and to show that even though we have different cultures and religions, we share a lot in common as people. There's a group of women who work painting henna in this main square in Morocco that's popular with tourists. One I know, Karima, was an inspiration for this series. She wears a veil and these really amazing textile abayas and djabellas and also rides a bike to work and back – she's a normal woman who works eight or ten hours a day. She speaks about four or five languages, is a housewife to two kids and built her own house.
Annons
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I was working on a fashion magazine photo shoot in Marrakesh in the 1990s when I realised everything – all the models, the photographer, the clothes – were from the West, and Morocco was simply the backdrop. From then, I said it'd be great to present my people in their environment in their kind of way of dressing, and play with it on a fashion level.What is the bike culture like in Marrakech? Generally speaking, do bike gangs even exist there? How big are motorbikes?
Marrakech is really a bike city; everyone rides them. Women, kids, old men, families, everybody. It's transportation; it's really used for work. A few of the bikes in the photos are from friends of mine we borrowed, but most are their own bikes. There are no real bike gangs.
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Moroccans have a strong sense of tradition and we are a very colourful nation. But I design the outfits – these traditional Moroccan djabellas and abayas and babouche with traditional prints and knock-off brand-name fabrics from markets in London and Marrakesh. I also build the frames for the photographs using products or objects I find in markets: cans of Fanta, tins or boxes of chicken stock. This came from when I was growing up in Morocco, as many things are recycled to be re-used, and this has somehow come into my work. I wanted to use the repetition of labels in a slightly humorous context, often directly relating to something happening in the photograph, but I also wanted to create a repeated pattern in the frame to evoke the mosaics of Morocco in a modern context.
Annons
I'm impressed with their strength and really aim to show their independence as normal. If these photos were taken in Paris or Rome, I imagine I wouldn't be asked what is so unique about women’s biker culture.If you had a bike gang who would be in it?
My gang would include women like you see in this series; women who just naturally have this strength, swagger, freedom.Click through to see more of Hassan's photos.
![](https://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/136851/M.jpg)
![](https://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/136852/Nisrin.jpg)
![](https://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/136853/Nikee-Rider.jpg)
![](https://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/136855/Gang-Of-Marrakesh.jpg)
![](https://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/136858/Brown-Eyes.jpg)
![](https://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/136859/Kick-Start.jpg)