Kasbahs, Random Photos and Marrakech

This woman just breaks my heart. She is a Berber woman who lives in a cave in the canyon behind a village. If you look closely you can see the tattoos on her chin. In Berber culture a young woman has her chin tattooed to mark that she is of age to marry. When she becomes engaged her nose is tattooed and when she weds her forhead. This woman has six children and only her chin tattooed. I cant help but think of the life she has had.... My assumption is that something terrible must have happened like having a child out of wed lock and she was banished from society. The fact that she has a child this young (and so many of them) also tells me that she is probably systematically raped by the local men.