Garowe, March 21, 2019 – The banquet Hall is comfortable and fully air-conditioned in the hot and burning wheather of the Horn of Africa. It might be of interest to note that neither the bridegroom nor the bride was present in the ceremony, but their respective representatives. This family arrangement is known as marriage by proxy. The new episode in today’s marriage procedure was a condition or a request I heard for the first time that, and perhaps new to Somalia’s marriage tradition, upon a request to give her hand, the girl’s representative demanded that the bridegroom should take the bride to the Hajj in Mecca. The representative of the bridegroom had to accept this request without much fuzz. Based on my enquiry, both the bridegroom and the bride were happily married with this novel arrangement. I also noticed that there was no need for women to be present in a marriage ceremony by proxy. It was only men’s business.

Ismail Warsame Blog

(Image credit: Megan Rogers)