I had a little talk with Adel (my teacher) about weddings here in Yemen. There are all sorts of details that are significantly different of course but what caught my attention was the role that religion played in it. Here in Yemen, the Imam seems to play the role of a notary. The father of the bride and the groom and his family come together and agree on things, the Imam puts it in writing and it is signed. That’s it. Weddings here seem to be almost totally in the social realm. There are many religious aspects to being married (sexual contact, gender roles, etc. ) but the wedding itself isn’t a religious event. I’ll have to look more into it and see if that’s just his perception, a Yemeni thing, or if it is more widespread in the muslim world. It really caught me by surprise, as religious as these people are, that weddings were not a solemn religious event…
Isaac