Hannah Rehak

By Hannah Rehak

Photo by William Matsuda

 

Mohammed holds a knife in his right hand and begins shredding the stalk of a beetroot. With a seeming lack of precision, he whips the knife from the head of the beet to the end of the leaves, cleaning it off within seconds. He throws the bulb into a plastic bag, already three fourths full, and begins another. But not before flashing a proud smile.

 

His father’s second wife, Mama Fatna, is hunched over in another trench, swiftly tugging at the tufts of crisp leaves.

By Hannah Rehak

Photo by Will Matsuda

Fatna Farhat never thought she’d live in a village like Birta. But when her husband decided to move from Casablanca, the largest of Morocco’s cities, to a rural village just outside of Fez, she knew she had no choice but to go with him. She was 30 years old and the new bride of a polygamous man who already had two wives.

Roughly two decades later, she has gained seniority as the first wife because those before her left through divorce and separation. For years, Farhat and her two biological children shared a six-room house with Jemma, the fourth wife who had five children, but when Farhat came into her father’s inheritance three years ago, she made a decision that would forever alter the family dynamic.