Casablanca—The Red-Light District

Casablanca—The Red-Light District—A Typical Young Jewish Woman. Mars Éditions, Photo Flandrin.

Postcard from the book: Jews in Old Postcards and Prints
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Among the modernization measures the French implemented in Casablanca after the First World War was the creation, from scratch, of a purpose-built red-light district, Bousbir, which opened in 1924. Ironically, while entirely failing to fulfil its intended purposes—the monitoring and containment of prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases in the city—it became Casablanca’s principal tourist attraction. It was designed by the French-born architect Edmond Brion as an entirely self-contained, gated entity to match what Western tourists would expect an authentic “Oriental” quarter to look like. Alongside a number of brothels, it also housed a sauna, a cinema, restaurants and various other leisure facilities and, much like today’s red-light district in Amsterdam, it attracted not only actual customers but large numbers of tourists who came to gawp and enjoy the titillation.

The (non-Jewish) photographer Marcelin Flandrin (1889–1957) was born in Bône (Annaba, Algeria) as the son of French settlers. Following his move to Casablanca, he charted the city’s transformation throughout the 1920s. One of the most prolific producers of postcards in Morocco, Flandrin was firmly committed to the concept of supposedly “typical” character portraits, and his output encompassed numerous indigenous women in varying degrees of undress. He held a virtual monopoly on postcards depicting Bousbir. The women working there endured extremely harsh conditions and were allowed to leave only once a week. It is estimated that no more than five per cent of them were Jewish.