Turkish Weddings:
In Turkish weddings, culture and religion determines how the bride is courted and the type of marriage ceremony. Among the more traditional people, families take a leading role in the search for a husband or bride; however with the increase of influence of the West, this is changing among the more educated and liberal young people. Monogamy is one of the essential principles of Turkish family law; therefore one marriage must be annulled before agreeing to another. The reason for this is the secularization of the state and religion that is seen as very important in Turkey.
The wedding in Turkish Muslims is solemnize by civil authorities rather than imams or other religious leaders, and often times that the passages in Qur’an are not mentioned or read during the wedding ceremony. This results in shorter ceremonies than can be seen in Muslim weddings in other countries. Also, men wear tuxedoes or suits, while women prefer white bridal dresses rather than the traditional Islamic Somali dresses.
I think it is interesting how the Turkish weddings are carried out because even though they maintain many traditional aspects of traditional Islamic weddings seen in other middle eastern countries (such as the henna ceremony the night before the wedding), they do attempt to strongly separate religion from the ceremony, even though many would argue that they are somewhat related.
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