A guest at an Afghani wedding

They danced and celebrated separate to the men and had a wonderful time at the wedding.

I was honoured to be a guest at Zac & Sakina’s Afghani wedding here in Shepparton,Victoria a few weeks ago. It was a first for me as it was also for the only other westerners at the entire wedding that also sat on my table. I find it fascinating to see the ways different cultures celebrate so I was really pleased to be there especially when I only met Sakina & Zac the week before.

(I can’t show many photos due to cultural reasons).

The main difference with this wedding was that the women and men celebrate in separate rooms. There was no men at all in the room for most of the night. The bride and groom entered together with their groomsmen & bridesmaids,Zac & Sakina had a dance together and then after a bridesmaid did a knife dance with the groom paying money to her until she agreed on the amount it was then time to cut the cake, Zac decorated his bride with gold jewellery, had another dance and then all the men left the room to go next door to the men’s celebration. The women were then invited to unveil if they wanted to as there was no men in the room. Many did unveil, but many didn’t. The women danced and had fun for many hours. At the end of the night once all the women are covered again the groom, groomsmen and father came back into the room to join together for a little while.

I was so grateful to Zac and Sakina for inviting me to and to experience something new and get to know their community more. I hope to photograph an Afghani wedding someday and Zac and Sakina told me only women can do this.