The Wedding Ceremonies in Mauritania

Hello everyone, I am going to do a presentation on the wedding ceremonies in Mauritania. Weddings have many meanings depending on their context, culture or individuals.  It can symbolize love as well as it can be a way for families to reconcile their interests. In either case, the celebration ceremony is done according to the traditions and culture. Today the focus will be held on the Mauritanian culture and ways of martial celebrations.  I will be presenting the ceremony following its chronological structure: Pre-marital preparations, the celebration and the post wedding traditions.

First we need to know that Mauritania is composed by many tribes and each one of them has its specific customs. Also, the country is an Islamic republic; therefore, it follows chariaa in many of its laws. Chariaa is the Islamic law stated in the Coran. It frames civilians’ everyday behavior while letting a place to traditions and cultures.

The wedding subject is quite controversial in Mauritania because there are some historical rules that forbid some tribes to get together because of their status. Just like India, Mauritanian society is very stratified and gives a primordial importance to tribes. For instance, a slave can’t get married with someone from the warriors or scholars.  For simplicity we will talk about a wedding on which there are no challenges.

Commonly, marriages are agreed on by families at the birth of the concerned individuals. They often are cousins meaning that they belong to the same tribe. The girl is promised to the young boy at her puberty. During her childhood, she is prepared to be beautiful. Beauty standards are very particular. Women have to be white and fat. Therefore, women in Mauritania hide themselves from the sun and are given a beverage made of camel milk, water and sugar to get fat. The fattening process is very popular in Mauritania but with globalization, people are becoming more aware of its bad repercussions on the girl’s health.  Two days before the ceremony, the bride call for women that will make her henna designs on both her hands and feet. The designs are very small so it takes 2 days for the women to do them.

When the girl is ready, the groom’s family gives to the bride a lot of presents and camels as a part of dowry and sign an official religious act.

The day of the ceremony, the groom organizes one party with two main parts. The first one is official, the females ‘family members are invited to a dinner and have a traditional music band singing songs about the bridegroom. The party is exclusively made for women to dance and have fun. During this time, the bride is kept hidden by her best friends in her house until the grooms finds her and picks her with his friend. The bride wears a traditional black veil and if it is her first wedding, she has to wear a white scarf around her neck that symbolizes her virginity. She also has to show that she is shy so she covers her face with her hands.