Bousbir | Launch Event

BOUSBIR by Reuven Zahavi
Artist’s book
In pursuit of the women’s trafficking district in colonial Casablanca

The event will take place on Friday, 21 November 2025, at 12:00
at Mamuta, Hansen House, Jerusalem. Admission is free.
During the launch, remarks will be delivered by Dr. Tal Frankel-Elroy, Dr. Yona Weitz, and Dr. Reuven Zahavi.
Moderator: Dr. Tal Frankel-Elroy
Bousbir was a closed district established specifically for the purpose of trafficking women in colonial Casablanca under French rule in 1923. Thousands of girls and women, most of them Muslim but many also Jewish and Christian, were imprisoned and forcibly employed in the district, which was designed in an Orientalist, “exotic” style. It quickly became the largest sex-tourism site of its kind in the world.
Bousbir, the artist’s book, emerged from years of research, studio work, documentation, and collection. It seeks to reveal a silenced story of human trafficking and colonial mechanisms of control, and to examine their relevance today. The essays and texts in the book are accompanied by paintings, drawings, installations, sketchbooks, and historical documentation. The district was closed in 1955 with the end of French rule in Morocco.
Design: Orna Cohen Studio and Reuven Zahavi
200 full-color pages | Hardcover | Hebrew + English
Published with the support of the Independent Artists Fund, Ministry of Culture
Launch price: 100 NIS (instead of 120)