Henna has a long history, going as far
back as antiquity, stretching out across many regions of North Africa and the
Middle East through Muslim, Arabic, tribal Africa, and Hindu social groups (Smith, 1999) . The place henna
holds in Morocco is one centered in symbolic meaning for celebrations and in
the stages of a woman’s life. Now a day, however, there is an evolving social
and economic stand point for women concerning the application, selling,
setting, and artistic design of henna. What with the high influx of tourists
coming to Morocco on vacation, there is an ever growing market on the streets
for women to leave the domestic domain to make a living selling henna designs
to tourists, both domestic and international (Spurles, 2008) . This reveals a
drastic change from the traditional forms of selling henna, where the women are
confined to the domestic home and must be approached by the client, versus
being called out to like a common fruit vender in an outdoor market (Spurles, 2008, p. 10) . This drastically changes
the dynamic of the experience of receiving henna greatly as the application and
rituals of henna giving are controlled and done by women, as they are
traditionally always done in a women’s space (Spurles, 2008, p. 10) . By applying the
tourist sector henna in the street which is typically dominated by men and
representatives of the state is a big jump from where it had traditionally been
given, in an artisan’s home [the domestic space] over seen by women (Spurles, 2008, p. 10) . Refreshments are
offered to those on the street receiving henna, “instead of receiving them as
my guest,” and money is bargained over instead of using language and gesture to
indicate that the money which is given is meant as a gift that speaks as a
blessing on the giver (Spurles, 2008, p. 10) . The demand for
tourist sector henna has created a floor of opportunity for women to make
money, and many have come to fill that demand, most of who have neither been
trained nor apprenticed by local henna artisans (Spurles,
2008, p. 10) .
What I find so critical about the
difference between the two methods of applying henna are their meanings.
Traditional henna was meant as a sign for a particular moment in a woman’s
life. When children are born there is a gmata
ceremony where henna is rubbed on the hands of the child (Spurles, 2008, p. 23) . The children are
then wrapped in a cloth and passed around the room to the guests of the house
hold who have also rubbed henna onto their hands and will bounce the baby and
bless them with promises of money (Spurles, 2008, p. 23) . Later in life when
a woman is married, her hands and feet will be covered with henna for her
marriage. This is very important moment in a woman’s life and is symbolized by
placing henna on her feet. Henna is never placed on the feet of a young girl
beyond the age of 7 or 8 when there is guaranty no confusion of the girl’s
virginity (Spurles, 2008, pp. 31-32) . Closer to the end
of a woman’s life, when a woman is divorced or widowed, she will abstain from
using henna as it is a sad time for her (Spurles, 2008, p. 29) . She will be
confined to the house, to not show any hair around her face, and to wear only
white (Spurles, 2008, p. 29) . The practice of
henna after this is a sign that the mourning period is over and she can rejoin
the rest of the world for celebrations and happiness again (Spurles,
2008, p. 30) .
These moments of ceremony and celebration surrounding the application of henna
are removed almost entirely by selling henna on the streets to tourists who
simply want a trinket to take home. It is the meaning and designs, made
specifically for the client, which brings so much more meaning and life to the
art forth.
One element of henna that can
never be removed is the after care. To ensure the design keeps for as long as
possible, a woman must refrain from doing activities like washing dishes or
clothes as so to avoid washing the henna off or exfoliating the skin too
harshly (Smith, 1999) . This can be
prevented with after care, either through using lemon juice and sugar to keep
the skin clean and smooth (Spurles, 2008, p. 16) . Tourist or local
woman: after care is important in order to prevent washing off the henna too
quickly. This means the woman will have to refrain from doing physical
activities that mean her hands and feed would get scrubbed or wet. What this
means for a Moroccan woman is that the house work the woman would typically do
would be shifted to other members of the family and house hold to keep up with
the work (Spurles, 2008, p. 16) . A family’s wealth
is a reflection of how long they can sustain the house hold without having to
ask the woman whose hands and feet are hennaed to take part in the chores (Spurles,
2008, p. 16) .
This is particularly significant as the henna usually takes place during a
celebration when chores and work in the home will become much heavier a burden
to bare (Spurles, 2008, p. 16) . It is unlikely
however that a tourist would have issues with such situations, as many come
from places where have machines to do the scrubbing for them, or it is not a
tradition to put work on others in order to keep the henna – they would just
simply have to watch it wash away more quickly.
I have not gone nearly as far
into this text as I would like at this point, but I look forward to uncovering
the intricate social and artistic nature of henna that permeates Arabic culture
in Morocco and am very excited to read the rest of this manuscript.
Bibliography
Smith, M. (1999).
Henna Body Art. Hong Kong: Mars Publishing.
Spurles, P. K.
(2008). Henna for Brides and Gazelles: Tradition, Tourism and Gender in
Morocco. Montreal: University of Montreal.
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