normally i don't talk too much about my origins on my account but i have a correction to make.
i am algerian (more precisely french-algerian even if here i will only speak about algeria)
i also specify that i am amazigh, i am not arab, i am part of the indigenous people of the region (well the situation is more complicated but frankly, i am a little lazy to explain to western people the complexity of ethnic groups in north africa but even if i am not theoretically one, it does not bother me to be considered as one (and in a certain way, i am by a part of my culture even if it is mainly amazigh).
i often see posts like this from westerners (who have no idea what north africa is).
i will explain why this is complete bullshit and why it is racist and islamophobic.
first of all, anyone who has ever been to north africa knows that the vast majority of veiled women wear the classic hijab. of our generation (i say our generation when talking about generation z) there are quite a few women who do not wear one.
after trying to talk about traditional outfit here there are two huge mistakes. already this outfit wanting to be a traditional outfit is not at all. I explain.
given the patterns it surely wants to be a traditional amazigh outfit (therefore my people) except that our outfits do not even really resemble that (i vaguely have the impression of being confronted with a poor quality outfit or for a disguise of what our traditional outfit is).
our traditional outfits are often very modest, even if the veil does not conform to the hijab, amazigh women have covered their hair for generations. this is normal, it is literally a religious commandment.
i really don't see why westerners often have a problem with wanting or liking to dress modestly. even though i'm non-binary, i always dress very modestly. men also have rules of modesty in islam, so in most muslim countries, men and women are dressed according to codes that mean they are often covered.
(it would never occur to me to go out with a short sleeved t-shirt or with shorts or a short skirt. i am always covered no matter what country I am in)
I have many photos of my great grandmother who wears her hair covered by a turban. this is the case for almost all amazigh women of her generation and the generation after. if you come across an amazigh granny in north africa, it is very likely that she will be wearing a turban.
if we look a little at the history of algeria, we learn that during french colonization, the french government organized “unveiling” sessions where algerian women were forced to remove their veils in public. the french government did this to humiliate and subjugate women; it was an extremely violent act for them.
but that's not all. even if the idiot who made this post (sorry for my vocabulary) tried unsuccessfully to take a traditional amazigh outfit (which is hideous, i personally feel insulted. i grew up as a trans person assigned girl at birth, wearing magnificent kabyle dresses and dreaming of having beautiful amazigh outfits covered in silver jewelry. so seeing an aliexpress dress and not at all traditional revolts me, especially for a person who claims to talk about MY culture without knowing a minimum of it)
that's not all, in algeria the amazigh are an ethnic minority and 80% of the population are arabs from the maghreb (maghreb literally means arab from this area). and among the maghrebis, the traditional dress of women looks like this:
(real traditional version)
and yes, it is also an integral veil. and whether you like it or not, it is the traditional dress of most algerians, even if in fact, the hijab (which is much less covering) is worn more often
well i hope i explained correctly to the european that we should not speak for us. as an algerian person (trans but assigned female at birth) i would like to ask you to shut your mouth and educate yourself before talking about our bodies, the bodies of our sisters, our mothers, and our female ancestors. and above all to stop being stupid, racist and islamophobic people.
ps/ ethnic origin in the maghreb is a permanent mix. north african arabs also have an amazigh part (and this is also often the case the other way around)
ps2/being arab doesn't really mean anything scientifically. being arab can mean living in or coming from an arab country (which would make me an arab), speaking arabic, or having an arab culture. i mean, genetically most arabs are only partly arab.
ps3/ amazigh or berber (which is a pejorative term, which i hate but which is used a lot in the west) is a group of indigenous peoples of north africa. there is a great variety of people who are all very different but who share part of their culture and their language (the amazigh have languages of origin that are not arabic)
ps4/ i am neither pan-africanist nor pan-arabist, i am for a unity of the two .i am for a union of peoples, and in particular non-western peoples. (especially since the concept of state as we understand it in the west is a colonial legacy for most of our peoples. north africa is in its entirety my country, i would even say that all of SWANA is my « country ». i am at home when i am in any country in this area)
ps5/ i made it clear that i was queer in this post and if anyone here has a problem with me being queer and algerian. let that person go choke on a ball of taasbante. seriously, you can keep your shitty pink washing.
ps6/ i would end with a little "tahia falestine" but in kabyle we say rather : ⴼⴰⵍⴻⵙⵟⵉⵏ ⵜⵉⵍⴻⵍⵍⵉⵜ
