On our daily “site seeing” trip in the armoured SUV with the driver and Omar our armed body/security guard, I noticed a big blue building signed as an Afghan-Dubai Wedding Center.” Omar told me that Afghan weddings include over 1,000 guests! The party is traditionally paid for by both sets of parents, but because his father is only a poorly paid Physics teacher that he will pay for his own wedding. Traditionally, the wedding couple receive their gifts a week or so after the wedding with money, gold, jewelry, or household items being the order of traditional gifts. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the “Wedding Center.”
Since weddings are a civil matter, the Mosque is not involved. Typically the marriage license/certificate is obtained at the City Hall. See below some of the mosques that we see on our typical drive back to the Compound.
