The life of an ordinary family in Yemen. An unequal Asian marriage. Yemeni customs and traditions

24.09.2019

As many people as possible are invited to the wedding. Usually the number of people reaches several hundred and sometimes even thousands!

Men and women, as is customary, celebrate separately. A separate room is rented for women, and men sometimes get by with a specially set up tent on the street.

Before the wedding stage:

First will take place engagement... It is customary to woo the girl's family and wait for her consent. If she agrees, she or her family can set further conditions, such as the right to graduate from school or university, her dowry, etc. With the consent of the families, the bride and groom put rings on their right hands.

Unfortunately, most families woo their daughters at a very young age without asking their consent.

An engagement can last several months to several years. It all depends on what the families have agreed on and on the financial capabilities of the groom.

Wedding stage :

Painting... The men of the family of the bride and groom, close friends of the heads of the family, witnesses from both sides, as well as Al-Qada, which constitutes the wedding, gather.

The bride's father and groom shake hands and repeat the words of Al-Qada.

The words are something like this. I give my daughter to such and such (father of the bride), to such and such, etc.

Day of Gassel or Henna.

On that day, the bride's arms and legs are painted with beautiful henna patterns, and before that she is given a full body epilation.

Women gather in the evening. They dance, hoot and sing songs. On this day, the bride dresses up in all green and when she goes out to the guests over her head it is customary to hold a Koran and a vase of incense (bahor بخور) while shouting certain words and prayers. Something like; Our bride is deservedly beautiful, Masha Allah!

Our bride is getting married, Bismilla!

Henna's day is followed by the wedding itself and the wedding night.

On Henna's day, but sometimes even the day before, a large dinner is served (Gada غذاء). To which close relatives and neighbors are invited. Since there are usually a lot of relatives, one can imagine how many people gather.

They invite the chefs who cook rice and lamb in huge cauldrons.

Usually all wedding expenses are borne by the groom and his family.

The final day of the wedding is called Zifaf

On this day, from early morning, the bride is taken to a beauty salon and there she spends almost the whole day. She gets makeup, hair, manicure, etc. Guests gather in a pre-rented hall (often looks like a movie theater) around 8pm. On a small scene, two decorated chairs are put on which the newlyweds will sit down later.

The car of the bride and groom is decorated with ribbons and flowers, and the windows are covered with a special white paste so that the newlyweds are not visible. By evening, the groom goes to the beauty salon for the bride and takes her to the photo studio and then to the club where the guests have gathered.

At this time, in the club, women dance and have fun until the arrival of the newlyweds.

The arrival of the groom and the bride is announced over the microphone and the women begin to dress and hide their smart, evening dresses under black abayas and chedars.

The bride and groom come in, surrounded by cheerful shouts, hooting and prayers. So they are escorted to their chairs. At this time, the music continues and relatives and friends begin to approach, congratulate the newlyweds. After a while, the bride and groom are brought a cake and glasses of juice and they drink at the brotherhood.

This is sometimes followed by a slow dance and the groom leaves, leaving the bride to have fun with her friends and guests. As soon as the groom leaves, they all take off their black abayas and headscarves and again find themselves in charming evening dresses. The fun lasts until 11-12 at night and in the end all the cars accompany the newlyweds to the doorstep their homes with shouts, flashing lights and car horns.

Yemeni women go to the gardens a maximum of 4 times a month and for each wedding they buy more and more new outfits. Since the appearance in the same dress threatens with female gossip

Weddings in Yemen these are very noisy and exhausting events. Everything is done for the guests more than for the young people themselves.

The bride's dowry or her mahr reaches 500,000 Yemeni rials ($ 2,500). Not including the purchase of gold, which comes out at about the same price.

In the backward countries of Asia, even today 40-70% of girls get married before the age of 18, up to 12 years - 5-20% (maximum - in Yemen and Afghanistan). Usually marriage with them is a bargain: the girl is bought by her husband, who is 3-5 times her senior, and she has no right to terminate the “contract”. For disobedience - terrible injuries and even the death of a girl.

The Interpreter's Blog goes on to talk about the different kinds of "Asian spirituality" that has recently been contrasted with the "decaying West." Children's weddings in India, the marriage of girls aged 5-12 to 40-70-year-old men, the terrible punishment of children who disobeyed their husbands - all these are the spiritual bonds that permeate backward societies in Asia. There are also innovations: “tradition”, “grandfathers did so”, etc. are supported by eugenic "studies" - "southern girls mature early," "giving birth at the age of 14 is good for the body," and so on.

True, the adherents of the primitive New Age do not say anything about the child's subjectivity. Whether it is American, Russian, German, Arab or Pashtun, up to a certain age (usually 14-18 years) is considered fully or partially incapacitated. Violation of the sexual integrity of a minor is called pedophilia and is severely punished in the “spiritless West”. This is one of the main rules for humanity, called civilized. And persons claiming sexual possession of a child are recognized as mentally ill according to the 10th revision of the international classification of diseases.

In defense of their innocence, traditionalists invoke religion and cite a hadith (the statement of the Prophet Muhammad), which says: happy is the father who gave his daughter in marriage before she had her first menstruation. They insist that husbands who marry little girls should take care of them as their own children until puberty. Allegedly, this is the only opportunity for poor families to save their girls from poverty or the practice of kidnapping of brides widespread here (you cannot sell a kidnapped girl anymore).

Under the laws of most Western countries, tens of millions of men in Africa and Asia would go to jail for long periods of time for pedophilia. But in their homeland they are given the full right to this perversion.

The West prefers not to pay attention to the fact that in the countries of the South, primarily its allies (Saudi Arabia or Pakistan), millions of their citizens brutally violate human rights. Messages about marriages with children usually go in the background to some "funny news".

Here in Saudi Arabia, a 90-year-old husband filed a lawsuit against the parents of his 15-year-old wife, who did not let him into the bedroom on their wedding night, and then simply ran away. The newlywed indicated in the lawsuit that he paid the girl’s parents kalym 17.5 thousand dollars. In his statement, he demanded that the money or his wife be returned to him.

Or another piece of news that amused the Western world and was described by Time magazine. A girl from Yemen named Nujud, who is only 10 years old, managed to be married and divorced, the correspondent of Time magazine was surprised. She became the youngest divorced wife in the world. The world press became interested in the history of Nuzhud. She was named Woman of the Year by New York magazine Glamor, and then she came to Paris to present her autobiography, written with her words by the journalist Dolphin Mina.

In both photographs - Nuzhud, the liberated woman of the East.

Following the 10-year-old Nujud, inspired by her example, her compatriot, 9-year-old Arwa Abdu filed for divorce. Soon, in neighboring Saudi Arabia, another girl, the 8-year-old wife of an adult man, achieved a divorce. Following them, 11-12-year-old wives began to sue.

But not everyone is as lucky as Yemeni Nuzhud. In a backward world, married girls are defeated, brutally beaten and killed for the slightest offense. Often they themselves, unable to withstand the torture, decide to commit suicide, usually choosing for this such a method as self-immolation. In recent years, Western media have bypassed many photos of girls from Afghanistan who decided to burn themselves, but miraculously survived. These pictures appeared thanks to the American invaders, who are putting at least some order in this country, incl. suppressing very egregious cases of human rights violations.

Here are some of these shots of self-immolation survivors:

And the editors of the American magazine Time even decided to place on the cover of the issue a snapshot of an Afghan girl whose face was disfigured by a Taliban fighter for trying to flee her family because of the abuse by her husband's relatives.

Below are photos of marriage unions, where girls are rarely more than 14-15 years old - from countries with strong spiritual bonds.

Afghanistan. 55-year-old Said Mohammed and 8-year-old Roshan Qasem on their engagement day in the village of Chavosh. The bride's father, Abdul Qasem, 60, said he felt unhappy giving his daughter to someone else's home at such an early age, but extreme need left him no choice.

Afghanistan. Police officer Malalai Karar arrests 35-year-old Janan after he tried to kill his 15-year-old wife, Jamila. Jamila fled to her mother after years of abuse by her husband and mother-in-law. Janan pursued his wife, intent on killing her, but ended up inflicting numerous stab wounds on her grandmother, who was trying to protect her granddaughter. Jamilya was engaged when she was only 1 year old and got married at 10 years old.

Afghanistan. Faiz Mohammed, 40, and Ghulam Heder, 11, at her parents' house on the eve of their wedding in the village of Damarda.

Afghanistan. Majabbin Mohammed (left), 13 years old, next to her husband and his first wife.

Yemen. Tahani (in pink) was only 6 years old when she married Majed, 25 years old (standing next to her). Another girl in the photo - she got married when she was 8 years old.

Yemen. Young brides on the day before the wedding.

Yemeni still rarely participate in world beauty contests, among them there are few well-known models and actresses. But many beautiful yemeni could compete with the most famous beauties. In their country, Yemeni women rarely flaunt their faces, according to tradition on the street they are always covered with thick clothes. And only the eyes remain open and at least partially can tell about the appearance of their mistress. Yemeni women skillfully use the beauty of their eyes to charm men. They know how to skillfully apply decorative cosmetics that emphasize the depth and mystery of the gaze.

Features of the appearance of Yemeni

Interestingly, Yemeni women are very diverse in their appearance, although at first they seem very similar to a tourist arriving in their country. But even the region of residence can affect how beautiful Yemeni women look, what their skin color, body type, eye shape. If you live a little in the country or study a certain amount photos of women from Yemen, you can see for yourself the variety of beauty of women and girls. Yemeni in the northern part of the country, as well as those living in the west, have lighter skin. Eye color - from brown to gray. They have a strong figure, high growth. Representatives of the southern region are characterized by an appearance typical of. Beautiful Yemeni women from the south are dark-skinned, short, with dark eyes. It is worth noting that some Yemeni from the northern regions may even show off blond hair, which is unusual for representatives of Arab countries. If you look for an answer to such a riddle, you need to remember about world migration, the resettlement of people from one country to another. In the appearance of a Yemeni, you can see the features of African and Indian women, Turkish women and Bedouins. Thanks to this variety, beautiful Yemeni women become even more interesting and spectacular in appearance.

The main outfit of a Yemeni woman is traditional - it is completely covering the body or a veil. Age-old traditions and rules do not allow even the most beautiful women to expose their face and figure to the public. Beauty is only for those closest to you. Under dense and dark covers, women wear multi-colored attire, which brightens up the usual wardrobe a little. But those ladies who go outside their country, for example, study abroad, will certainly strive to take advantage of the opportunity to show off in beautiful and fashionable outfits. If beautiful yemeni get to beauty contests, they certainly attract the attention of both the jury and the audience.

9.Inbar Bakal / إنبار باكال(born in Tel Aviv, Israel) - Israeli and American singer, born into a family of Yemeni and Iraqi Jews.

8. Rana al-Haddad- Yemeni singer.

7. Maria Al-Masani(born 1984) is a Canadian-based Yemeni-Canadian public relations specialist and founder of Yemen Rights Monitor, a non-partisan initiative to record human rights abuses in Yemen. In addition, Maria - first participant of Yemeni descent in a beauty pageant Miss Universe Canada 2010, who won the title of "Miss Congeniality".

6. Shoshana Damari / شوشانه (سوسنة) ذماري(March 31, 1923, Damar, Yemen - February 14, 2006, Tel Aviv, Israel) - Israeli singer of Yemeni origin, laureate of the State Prize of Israel (1988) for her contribution to songwriting in Hebrew.

5. Ofra Haza(November 19, 1957, Tel Aviv - February 23, 2000, Ramat Gan) - Israeli singer ("gentle" mezzo-soprano) and actress. She was born into a large family. Father is a Jewish repatriate from Yemen, mother is French.

The real stories of our emigrants are life, problems, work in Yemen without embellishment. For almost five thousand years, the Yemeni land was one of the most important states in the entire multimillion Muslim world. It is not without reason that Yemen is translated into Russian as "the right hand of Mecca."

Yemen has thousands of the oldest monuments of the entire civilization of the Earth. It was the main place of world trade. Was the leading country on the planet for the mass production of almost any agricultural product. And not simple, but truly unique. Yemen is that "bequeathed to us by Allah" place where enormous cotton fields and all the fruits and vegetables of the world grew in innumerable quantities. It is difficult to name anything that did not grow up in a fairy-tale country by the name: "Great Yemen", but. By the end of the 80s of the 20th century, Yemen began to feel more and more catastrophically a sharp decrease in the already rare sources of fresh water, and this began to affect not only the fatal decline in agriculture.

The problem of "dehydration" of Yemen hit the entire economy of the country sharply, and even in the houses of its residents, water pipes began to work with long interruptions. From the plumbing poured "unsuitable and dirty miserable semblance of water", which was not only impossible to drink, but scary and dangerous.

And then Yemen very in time managed to appeal to many countries of the world and it was our country that was the first, which is very significant, to respond to this “cry for help in the desert”. A number of meetings were held at various levels - from presidential ones to meetings of Russian specialists from various industries and agriculture. And I, as a professor at the Research Institute "Development of modern methods of Irrigation and Melioration" was appointed deputy head of the Russian project: "Water to Yemen".

And we, having arrived in the capital of this country, in the city of Sana'a, began our truly "holy work":

We carefully and painstakingly studied all the documentation provided to us that related to the entire economy of the country. This then, I will not deny, puzzled us very seriously. We, of course, assumed that the solution to this problem of Yemen No. 1 would not be easy, but so much so.

Then we divided into seven independent groups and, having drawn up a clear plan of expeditions in Yemen and having traveled all over the country far and wide, returning to Sana'a and “putting together our research”, we came to even greater horror. Although we honestly tried not to "show" this to the dull government of the country, which was threatened by a disaster called: "A little more and Yemen will be left without water at all and for a long time."

And the main troubles of Yemen's dehydration consisted of a huge number of reasons that so unsuccessfully and at the same time developed into "one lump of disaster." But then we urgently needed to isolate the most important ones. And immediately and immediately start with them. For the entire “list of fresh water problems” could not be solved at once by any country in the world.

We have ordered in the Kazakh city of Mangyshlak two hundred of the latest industrial seawater desalination plants and ten thousand household desalination plants. And desalination plants of such the highest level were developed by our scientists back in Soviet times, and they still do not have a single effective analogue in the whole world.
No, there are desalination plants in the USA. But their performance is comparable to ours, they are simply ridiculous, and the prices are 10 times more expensive than ours. That was a very important factor for large-scale transformations.

Having explored and “boiled” like a colander almost all the lands of Yemen, we realized that the only place in this country of mountains and deserts, where there are huge and clean reserves of fresh water, was only one coastal lowland called “Tihama”.

And there we began to quickly drill hundreds of deep-water wells. Immediately, simultaneously with the drilling of the "wells of life", we began to build powerful pumping stations there and lay pipelines to the most important and key regions of the country. There was simply no time to wait.

In every village and city of Yemen, we opened courses for the entire population of the country, where we taught them how to save precious water when irrigating future crops and when using tap water at home. We taught them to build concrete ditches with small holes, as is done, for example, throughout Kazakhstan and especially clearly in Alma-Ata and Uzbek Tashkent.

Yes, everything is countless. But we are happy that we managed to save Yemen and continue to work there to this day. And affairs there for many years. And the words: "The real stories of our emigrants - life, problems, work in Yemen without embellishment." They are just about all of us, for you and, of course, for the entire people of Yemen.

I'd like to tell you about the literal exploits of our people in Yemen. And they happened there almost several times in one day. But this is later - when we complete all the planned work, and Yemen will again become the Main trade and flourishing "Center of the World". And we will do it, no doubt, gentlemen and comrades.

I present to your attention another selection of interesting photographs of the life of people and events in different countries, today we will go to Bangladesh. The People's Republic of Bangladesh is a state in South Asia. The population, according to the results of the 2010 census, was more than 142 million people, the territory - 144,000 km2. It occupies the eighth place in the world in terms of population and ninety-second in terms of territory. These pictures

I present to your attention another selection of interesting photographs of the everyday life of people from different countries, this time we will go to Iraq. After the change of power, not everything is calm there, the country is plagued by military conflicts, people are dying. The Republic of Iraq is a state in the Middle East. The population, according to estimates for 2014, was more than 36 million people, the territory - 435,052 km?.