Book: Girls of Riyadh
Author: Rajaa Alsanea
Music1: Egyptian Mizmar at Wedding
Link - http://www.archive.org/details/EgyptianMizmarAtWedding
Music 2: Zaffet Al Arous, Salatin El Farab Orchestra
Link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrM0X76r-Ds
Fadi Gwanni
Excerpt:
One never knows who might be looking at the photos from the bride's or groom's side, and like any decent girl, Sadeem wouldn't want strange men to see her in an exposing evening dress and full makeup. She adjusted the veil on Gamrah's head and gave a tiny jiggle to the train after each step Gamrah took as her radar picked up fragments of conversation at nearby tables.
"Who's she?"
"Ma shaa Allah, * God willing, no envy touch her, she's so pretty!"
(*Ma shaa Allah is an Islamic phrase that one says in order not to jinx someone's luck.)
"The bride's sister?"
"They say she's an old friend."
"She seems a good girl - since we arrived I've seen her running around taking care of all sorts of things - it looks like she's carrying the whole wedding on her shoulders."
"She's a good deal prettier than the bride. Can you believe it, I heard that Prophet Mohamed used to send up prayers for the unlovely ones!"
"God's blessings and peace be upon him. E wallah,* must be true, because I swear, the ugly ones seem to be in demand these days. Not us, what bad luck."
(*E wallah means swearing in God's name that something is true.)
"Is her blood pure? Her skin is so fair."
"Her father's mother was Syrian."
"Her name is Sadeem Al-Horaimli. Her mother's family is married into ours. If your son is serious, I can get you the details about her."
Sadeem had already been told that three ladies had asked about her since the wedding started. Now she heard numbers four and five with her own ears. Every time one of Gamrah's sisters came over to tell her that so-and-so had been asking questions, she murmured demurely, "May good health knock on her door."
It seemed to Sadeem as if Gamrah's marriage might indeed be "the first pearl to roll off the necklace," as Auntie Um Nuwayyir put it. Perhaps now the rest of the girls would be just as lucky. That is, if they followed the plan Auntie had concocted.
The strategy of yaaalla yaaalla, which means "get going, but just baaarely," is the most foolproof path to a quick marriage proposal in our conservative society. The idea is to be energetic and constrained at the same time, and after that you can be as foolish as you want.
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