...It was assumed that these 'markings' found on female mummies were to indicate a dancing girl or prostitute, further denigrating the practice of tattoos of the ancient peoples of the Middle East, rewritten to suit the narrative and spread of monotheistic religions such as Islam and Christianity throughout North Africa. It was also used to oppress the feminine of prehistoric times who was venerated as a divine goddess, to which these tattoos in ancient Egypt represented. Writing into history that only low class women received these markings, historians have since argued that all women of Egyptian society may have also had tattoos, later to be theorized, as permanent marks that represented fertility and protection. Physical amulets to assist in childbirth, in which ritualized tattoos of Egyptian women could have also been applied to the roles of a high priestess, in her reverence of the cult goddess Hathor.
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..."
(A.Glass and Anina Chahid 2022)
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