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

"Of all the nomadic tribes of the Middle East and North Africa, it is the self named Amazigh or better known under their Greek derived term of Berber, who have represented a unique distinction as the indigenous people of Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya, by holding up the feminine as a revered goddess in pre-Islamaic culture. It was within the 7th and 8th centuries, when the Arabisation and spread of Islam began to conquer large parts of North Africa and the Middle East, coveting nomadic tribes to Islam, the Amazigh also became part of this Islamic decree in the centuries that followed. Until the natal inhabitants of North Africa began to revolt against Arab law, lead by the Amazigh, who, before turning against their rulers, were treated like second class citizens due to their own distinct Berber practices, which included tattooing and embracing the woman as an equal in tribal decision making. It was in this tumultuous period of Amazigh culture, that a woman rose to the role of the matriarchal warrior, more notably and importantly to Amazigh lore, she was the Berber queen Dihyā, renown for galvanizing the resistance of the indigenous Maghreb tribes of Northwest Africa and in 680 BCE (Before Common Era) she lead a campaign against Muslim rule over the Maghreb region. Dihyā became, as a female Amazigh icon, the beacon of resistance under an oppressor, to which the practice of Amazigh tattooing of young Berber woman was also, beyond its own cultural significance, seen as a rebellious force or as the Arabs titled, in referring to the Berber queen Dihyā, as al-Kāhina, the sorcerer “priestess.”..."

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