Mary Mathis

Mary Mathis is a photographer and video journalist.

My hair is always messy & I am always laughing at myself. I dress 90's and listen to 80's. I double major in journalism & photography at the University of Iowa. I'm currently in Washington DC, interning for USA Today in their multimedia department. I was previously in Morocco studying photojournalism & Arabic with Round Earth Media. I've been published in Outside Magazine, The Daily Iowan and The Des Moines Register.I'm interested in photography of all sorts, videography of all sorts, and audio production. I find happiness in anything involving creative thinking, and I love sharing my passions. Example A; I convinced teenagers that knitting was cool in high school. It caught on. We knitted in classes. It was a hit.


Moroccan surfer Meryem El Gardoum standing on a beach, looks directly at the camera.

Shredding the patriarchy: Two Moroccan women just surfed onto the world stage

Culture

Champion surfers Meryem El Gardoum and Fatima Zahra Berrada are the first women to represent Morocco at a surf contest abroad. Despite their success, back home in Morocco, some men aren’t sold on surfing and don’t approve of local women and girls taking part. And there’s pushback from local women, too.