WEDDED BLISS, IRANIAN STYLE - PART 2Love and Marriage Under Wraps
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY SANNA SJÖSWÄRD - BILDBYRÅN SILVER
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| Mariam and Mehti are picked up by car at the beauty salon. People gather around the car to get a glimpse of the bride. |
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| Outside the salon the women wait in the alley to get picked up by a car. It’s not considered good taste for women to be standing out in the street. Everyone left the salon a little before me, and when I followed them out into the street it was completely empty. I stood there scratching my head until someone came and ushered me away from there and into the alley. |
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| Mariam is very happy about getting married. She has picked her husband and she is very much in love. It is a big day. The only thing she didn’t expect was the big hoo-ha around the wedding, and all the attention she is getting. In Iran, 24 is a pretty common age to get married, at least in the bigger cities. In the country, people can be as young as 16 or 17. |
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| Mariam has worked as an assistant at a health-care center for a year. After the marriage she must quit her job and stay at home to cook, clean, and wash for her new husband. It is not uncommon for women to have jobs, but once a woman gets married the husband is supposed to support the wife, and not the other way around, even if they’re poor. Men are vain, and he wants to look good in front of his family. I think Mariam is OK with quitting. That’s what you do when you get married. |
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The wedding wasn’t as grand as they can be in Iran. The bride’s parents aren’t that well-off. There was a little wedding reception at a restaurant and there was food. The bride and groom were in the praying room.
After they’re married Mariam and Mehti will move into an apartment in the Eslam Shahr area, where Mariam was born and raised. Mariam’s parents, sister, and brother live in the neighborhood too. The couple have received interior furnishing as a gift from family and friends. |
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| A female wedding photographer takes their picture. She directs them to smell a rose and look lovingly at one another. |
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| At the wedding everyone talks about how beautiful the bride is, how many kids she’ll have, if she’s been getting any decent gifts, and who the man is related to. The bride and groom are pretty much the only things people talk about. |
TO BE CONTINUED:
WEDDED BLISS, IRANIAN STYLE | 1 | 2 | 3 |
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