The meeting of male relatives of both families in the groom’s house
I knew that in Bangladesh weddings were traditionally arranged male relatives of both families… I was in a village, in the countryside of Bangladesh, as a guest of a Bengali friend of mine.
For the first time in her life the bride will see her husband (right) before the wedding in this picture
One morning he invites me to a meeting between his family and another family in order to arrange his cousin’s wedding. This is the story of that day: a long day during which the bride sees her future husband (a lifelong partner) for the first time in her life on my camera’s display. A day of union that they live completely separated: they spend all the time during the wedding ceremonies only with their same sex relatives.
Outside the groom’s house: bride’s relatives start to organize the wedding ceremony
At the end of the day the bride must leave her family (and the place were she spent all her life until then) in order to join her new house and family: people and places that she has never seen before in her life. That’s the way it went: that’s the day she got married in Bangladesh.
They need to rent all the equipment for the banquet.
The bride with her sister.
Women in the village start to prepare food for the banquet.
The bride, ready for the celebration, is brought off her hut: only females and children are allowed to assist.By tradition the bride is colored with typical pigments.
The groom and his relatives are coming, so the bride must go inside her hut waiting for the night.
Only the Imam and the religious authorities are allowed to see the bride in order to celebrate the wedding. While the groom is outside, the bride inside is reading with the Imam the Holy Koran: from this moment they are officially married.
Time to go, time to leave. Carried by her cousin, crying and screaming, the bride leaves her family and house: her life until that day. The husband is waiting to carry her in his house with his family: something new but something unknown, because they haven’t met yet in their life.
As they are guests for the banquet, groom’s male relatives just eat and celebrate served by bride’s relatives.
