Reblog: May 11, 2022. "SYMBOLS OF THE MYSTIC: AMAZIGH WOMEN AND THEIR TATTOOS" (A.GLASS AND ANINA CHAHID 2022)

" ...Despite the influences of Islam throughout the Middle East and North Africa, decreeing that body modification, particularly the act of Berber tattooing as Haram or forbidden act within Islamic law, the practice of tattooing women of the Amazigh tribes continued on and was largely unaffected by Muslim rule throughout the centuries, it was until the colonization of Algeria and Morocco by the French in the late 1900s and into the 20th Century that the decline in the practice of tattooing Berber women occurred. Historians believed that it was partly due to the modernization of Moroccan and Algerian cities, when the Amazigh began to move into the city areas looking for work, leaving behind some of their customs.  However, French colonization throughout Northern Africa may have had a deeper impact, implementing a European moralist viewpoint, which frowned upon facial and hand tattoos displayed on Amazigh women, disregarding a tradition that dates back thousands of years, that not only embodied feminine beauty through their ceremonial tattooing, but celebrated a richly detailed Amazigh culture. It was during the height of occupation by the French up until the 1950s and the emergence of Islamist Revivalist Movements of the the same era, that tribal Berber woman began to retract from being tattooed and the practice began its decline from the 1950s onward..."

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Adrian Glass and Anina Chahid  (2022)

Full: https://chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/05/symbols-of-mystic-amazigh-women-and.html