Rashaida marriage
Rashaida tribe
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These are nomadic Arabic-speaking people of Bedouin Arab ethnicity living largely in the scattered areas in western and northern Eritrea, with some smaller groups also found in parts of Egypt, bordering the Sinai desert and Eastern Sudan.
Among this tribe, a marriage ceremony is a seven-day event. Bridewealth includes cloth, camels, jewellery and cash. It is the bride’s duty to arrange and decorate the tent where marriage festivities will be held while the groom kills a camel.
The festivities include activities like drumming, dancing and camel racing. Over the first 6 days of such festivities, the bride remains in isolation, only accessible to her mother, sisters and other wives of her father, while the groom and other men in the family celebrate. She will have to sneak into her husband’s tent for the first six nights and leave before sunrise.
Only on the seventh day of celebrations is she seen with her husband. If the bride is unhappy in a marriage, it can be dissolved after seven years and the dowry must be returned to the groom’s family. For the Rashaida, men are permitted to marry as many as four wives.
