In Mauritania, women are considered beautiful and attractive if they're moderately to morbidly obese. A widespread practice, in order to maintain this level of obesity, was forced feeding (leblouh). Forced feeding usually involved psychological pressure, rather than physical force, but it often required a family to reserve substantial quantities of food—in most cases, milk—for consumption by its pre-teenage daughters, whose beauty was a measure of a father's commitment to the marriage alliances they would form.

A father's most important responsibility toward his daughters was to prepare them for marriage, primarily by ensuring their physical attractiveness. Leblouh (Force-Feeding) is primarily done to ensure the girl is physically attractive for her betrothed so to be married to a husband. Many young women were betrothed or married by the ages of eight to ten. Unmarried teenage girls were subjected to severe social criticism.