The henna artist bent over her consumer’s hand, glancing on the smartphone to get the exact particulars of the sample chosen by her buyer, a younger lady dwelling in an historical desert metropolis within the West African nation of Mauritania.

Under a sliver of brightening moon, the younger lady, Iselekhe Jeilaniy, sat gingerly on a mat, cautious that the moist henna on her pores and skin wouldn’t smudge, simply as she had on the eve of her wedding ceremony day.

But she was not getting married. She was getting divorced. The subsequent day can be her divorce social gathering.

“Your attention, married ladies — my daughter Iselekhe is divorced now!” Ms. Jeilaniy’s mom known as out to the townspeople, ululating thrice and drumming on a plastic tray turned the wrong way up. Then she added the standard reassurance that the wedding had ended roughly amicably: “She’s alive, and so is her ex.”

Ms. Jeilaniy giggled, taking a look at her telephone. She was busy posting henna photos on Snapchat — the trendy model of a divorce announcement.

Divorce in lots of cultures is seen as shameful and carries a deep stigma. But in Mauritania, it’s not simply regular, however even seen as a cause to have a good time and unfold the phrase that the girl is obtainable as soon as extra for marriage. For centuries, girls have been coming collectively to eat, sing and dance at every others’ divorce events. Now, the customized is being up to date for the selfie era, with inscribed desserts and social media montages, in addition to the standard meals and music.

In this virtually 100% Muslim nation, divorce is frequent; many individuals have been by way of 5 to 10 marriages, and a few as many as 20.

Some students say the nation has the very best divorce charge on the planet, although there may be little dependable information from Mauritania, partly as a result of divorce agreements there are sometimes verbal, not documented.

Divorce within the nation is so frequent, in line with Nejwa El Kettab, a sociologist who research girls in Mauritanian society, partly as a result of the bulk Maure neighborhood inherited sturdy “matriarchal tendencies” from their Berber ancestors. Divorce events have been a approach for the nation’s nomadic communities to unfold the phrase of a girl’s standing. Compared with different Muslim international locations, girls in Mauritania are fairly free, she stated, and might even pursue what she known as a “matrimonial career.”

“A young, divorced woman is not a problem,” Ms. El Kettab stated, including that divorced girls have been seen as skilled and therefore fascinating. “Divorce can even increase women’s value.”

As Ms. Jeilaniy rigorously rearranged her melafha — a protracted fabric wrapped round her hair and physique, its shiny white chosen to focus on the darkish henna — her mom, Salka Bilale, strode throughout the household courtyard and crossed her arms, posing for photos destined for marketing campaign posters.

Ms. Bilale had additionally divorced younger, develop into a pharmacist and by no means remarried. Now, she was working to develop into the primary ever feminine member of the nationwide legislature for Ouadane, their hilltop city of some thousand folks dwelling in easy stone homes abutting a 900-year-old ruined metropolis.

Divorce was the explanation Ms. Bilale may do any of this. She had been married younger, earlier than she may pursue her dream of changing into a health care provider, and divorced when she stated she realized her husband was seeing different girls. Her former husband, who has since died, had wished her again, however she refused, so he reduce her off financially, initially giving her nothing, after which solely $30 a month to boost their 5 youngsters, she stated.

In dire want of cash, Ms. Bilale opened a retailer, and ultimately made sufficient to place herself by way of college. Last yr, a brand new hospital opened in Ouadane, and, in her early 60s, she lastly received a job within the medical area.

Her daughters’ expertise had been very totally different. Ms. Jeilaniy married a lot later, at 29, and 28-year-old Zaidouba had, thus far, turned down all marriage presents she’d had, preferring to check and tackle a sequence of internships.

Many girls discover that divorce affords them freedoms they by no means dreamed of earlier than or throughout marriage, particularly a primary marriage. Mauritanians’ openness to divorce — which appears so fashionable — coexists with very conventional practices round first marriages. It is frequent for fogeys to decide on the groom themselves and marry daughters off when they’re nonetheless younger — greater than a 3rd of women are married by the point they’re 18 — permitting the ladies little selection of their companions.

When one other resident of Ouadane, Lakwailia Rweijil, received married for the primary time as a young person, her father held the marriage ceremony with out her information, informing her afterward.

It wasn’t lengthy earlier than she divorced that husband. But she has been married off repeatedly within the greater than twenty years since.

Ms. Rweijil had no selection over any of her six husbands, and in consequence, she stated: “I don’t put people deep in my heart. When they come, they come. When they leave, they leave.”

But she has been in a position to decide on whom to divorce. Women can legally initiate divorce in Mauritania beneath sure circumstances, and though it’s normally males who technically achieve this, it’s typically on the girls’s insistence.

Women usually get precedence over males for custody of any youngsters after a divorce. Although males are legally chargeable for paying for his or her youngsters’s upkeep, there may be little enforcement and girls typically find yourself bearing the monetary burden.

Even although many ladies by no means plan to get divorced, if it occurs, it’s simpler for them to maneuver on than in lots of different international locations, stated Ms. El Kettab, the sociologist, as a result of society helps as an alternative of condemning them. “They make it so simple, it’s easier to turn the page,” she stated.

And one of many methods a girl’s circle exhibits that help is thru events.

Ms. Jeilaniy stated she had divorced as a result of her husband was too jealous, generally even refusing to let her exit. She needed to wait three months to finalize the divorce and have her divorce social gathering, an interval that’s required to make sure that the girl shouldn’t be pregnant. If she is, the couple normally waits till the kid’s beginning.

On the day of her divorce social gathering, Ms. Jeilaniy dabbed basis on her cheeks and highlighted her darkish eyebrows in gold, as she had realized from YouTube.

Wrapping herself in a melafha of deep indigo, she stepped out of the entrance door and set off for the social gathering, hosted by a pal of her mom’s in the lounge of her modest stone home.

The girls dipped dates in canned cream. They scooped up camel meat and onions with hunks of bread. Then they ate handfuls of rice from a standard platter, rolling them into balls of their palms as they talked. Small boys crouched and peered on the more and more raucous social gathering by way of the open home windows, which in Ouadane are on the stage of the sandy avenue.

More girls arrived, and the singing started. Women who had identified many divorces and attended many divorce events sang of affection, after which of the Prophet Muhammad — lilting, drifting, generally sorrowful desert music, accompanied solely by drums and clapping.

Mauritania, a land of nomads, camels and empty moon-like landscapes, is usually known as the land of 1,000,000 poets. And even divorce is poetic.

“There is so much poetry about the seduction of divorced women,” stated Elhadj Ould Brahim, a professor of cultural anthropology at Nouakchott University. This stands in sharp distinction, he identified, to a lot of the Muslim world, together with Mauritania’s instant neighbors like Morocco, the place, he stated, the social stigma is so sturdy that “it’s death for a woman to be divorced.”

Today’s divorce-themed poetry, Mr. Ould Brahim stated, is extra visible and is conveyed through social media.

“Snapchat is the new ululation,” he stated.

The sisters’ mom arrived and plopped down on the carpet close to Ms. Jeilaniy, who had spent a lot of her social gathering on her telephone, messaging and posting selfies. The social gathering started to wind down.

Ms. Bilale checked out her elder daughter. “She’s only interested in marriage and men,” she stated. “When I was her age, I was already interested in politics.”

Ms. Bilale received up from the carpet. If Ms. Jeilaniy wouldn’t use her standing as a divorced lady to advance her profession and construct her independence, then Ms. Bilale would think about utilizing her personal. She headed out the door towards the kitchen, the place she had spied some potential voters for the upcoming election.

“I’m going to the young people to get votes,” she stated.