In this culture, the veil belongs to the men. The women go uncovered. For a mostly Muslim people of the Sahara, that reversal is only the first surprise.
The Tuareg are the ones you may know as the blue men of the desert. The men wrap their heads and lower faces in a long indigo cloth called the tagelmust, and the dye rubs off onto their skin. A boy first puts it on around the age he becomes a man, and after that he keeps it up in public, often even while he eats. Baring your mouth in front of an elder or your wife’s family is considered rude. The women do not veil at all.
How the family works is just as different. Tuareg society is largely matrilineal, so a child belongs to the mother’s line, and descent, names, and inheritance run down through the women.
The tent is hers. A woman owns the home, much of the livestock, and her own jewelry, and she is the one who brings the tent into a marriage. Women move freely, pick who they marry, and can begin a divorce without any shame in it. If a marriage ends, it is the husband who leaves, walking out with little while the tent and the children stay with her.
One thing to be clear about. This is not a place where women rule. The chiefs and public leaders are still usually men. But the title passes down through the mother, the home belongs to the wife, and the most famous veil in the desert belongs to the men.
