Naziha’s Spring

Naziha is a 45-year-old woman of Moroccan descent and the mother of 10 children. She’s been without a partner since throwing out her violent husband. In 2007, she was in the news when her teenage sons were causing serious trouble. In perfect Dutch she tells the story of how as a young girl she was married off to a man 30 years her senior, and of how he turned her household into a “terrorist training camp.” She speaks bitterly about this dark period, which had led to her sons’ criminal behavior. “Children don’t behave badly for any reason at all. We make them what they are”. She wants her story to break the taboo on getting help. “There’s still so much shame”, she says about her mostly Moroccan neighbors. When it emerges that one of Naziha’s sons was involved in the death of a soccer referee, the normal quiet life she dreams of looks further away than ever.

This is the story of an articulate, modern woman who, despite the burden of her youth and continual problems with her children, is tireless in her struggle for better life.