The I in Mashta: A Journey through Women’s Voices, Rituals, and Memory in Tunisia
By Souhir Zekri. As an entertainer who dresses and praises the bride, the mashta turns into a symbolic maternal figure who supports and preserves the feminine community surrounding her. This central character also has potential for women’s empowerment, in spite of her economic difficulties, and can help preserve an intangible Tunisian cultural heritage and identity. The mashta thus stands at the intersection of women’s labor, motherhood, cultural transmission, and community. Her changing presence also raises questions about what happens to these forms of knowledge when the traditions that sustain them begin to disappear.
