Politics, Gender and the Art of Religious Authority in North Africa: Moroccan Women's Henna Practice Public
Rogers, Amanda Elisabeth (2013)
Published
Abstract
Henna, a decorative dye, is applied to women's hands and feet at religiously significant occasions throughout North Africa--yet only in Morocco does this feminine art symbolize a nationalized, tolerant Islam. How and why does a body adornment dismissed by scholars as merely "cosmetic' function, instead, as a powerful emblem uniquely within Morocco's territorial boundaries? I argue that the adornment's significance is related to localized interpretations of Islam, anchored in understandings of the material's blessed nature through its association with the Prophet Muhammad. Equally rooted in canonical text and popular tradition, Moroccan henna serves as a potent local signifier for normative gender roles, female spirituality and monarchical legitimacy. Involving comparative fieldwork and archival research across Morocco, France, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, this project ultimately yields a broader understanding of art practice, gender, religious and political authority, and art in North African society.
Chapter 1 contextualizes the study's primary setting, introducing the historical, governmental and geographical specificities that render Morocco distinctive from its neighbors. Chapter 2 evaluates predominant Moroccan body adornment traditions in conjunction with local conceptions of the art forms' respective importance. I argue that despite a shared iconography, only henna retains its position of prominence in contemporary society, due to commonly accepted religious ideas that define it as a material blessed by association with the Prophet. Chapter 3 examines the intersection of henna's religious value with cultural codes of appropriate gender behavior. Here, I analyze the ways in which henna inscribes normative values of gendered spiritual behavior on the flesh of men and women, and functions as a religious practice outside the space of the mosque. Chapter 4 traces the history of henna's politicization in post-colonial history and discusses it appropriation as an icon of cultural memory for nationalist artists in the search for a uniquely Moroccan identity. Chapter 5 analyzes the State's conscientious appropriation of henna in times of political crisis to signify a monarchically-promoted "Moroccan Islamic" brand, from the 2003 Casablanca bombings through demonstrations of the 2011 Arab Spring.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Territorial Settings: "Exceptional" Morocco as Historical Contact Zone 15
Chapter 2: The Matter of Medium / Medium Matters 40
Chapter 3: Henna in Ritual: the Embodied Terrain of Moroccan Islam 90
Chapter 4: Marketing the Postcolonial State: Henna Nationalisms from Fine Arts to Tourism 142
Chapter 5: Warding off Terrorism and Revolution: Moroccan Religious Pluralism, National Identity and the Politics of Visual Culture 181
Conclusion 218
Image Appendices 222
Bibliography 264
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