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Muslim
Pomaks are tending a hardy Muslim culture in largely Christian Bulgaria, where
the communist regime did not tolerate any religious rituals, pressing Muslims
to abandon wearing their traditional outfits. The traditional winter marriage ceremony is Ribnovo's
answer to the persecutions of the past
TSVETELIA ILIEVA
RIBNOVO, Bulgaria - Reuters
: Pomak
bride's face painted white, dotted with bright sequins. Reuters photo
Fikrie Sabrieva, 17, will marry
with her eyes closed and her face painted white, dotted with bright sequins.
She lives 'at the end of the world', tending a hardy Muslim culture in largely
Christian Bulgaria.
The remote village of
Ribnovo, set on a snowy mountainside in southwest Bulgaria, has kept its
traditional winter marriage ceremony alive despite decades of Communist
persecution, followed by poverty that forced many men to seek work abroad.
"Other nearby villages
tried the traditional marriage after the ban was lifted, but then the custom
somehow died away -- women wanted to be modern," said Ali Mustafa Bushnak,
61, whose daughter came to watch Fikrie's wedding.
"Maybe we are at the
end of the world. Or people in Ribnovo are very religious and proud of their
traditions."
Some experts say clinging
to the traditional wedding ceremony is Ribnovo's answer to the persecutions of
the past.
Bulgaria is the only European Union nation where
Muslims' share is as high as 12 percent. The communist regime, which did not
tolerate any religious rituals, tried to forcibly integrate Muslims into
Bulgaria's largely Christian Orthodox population, pressing them to abandon
wearing their traditional outfits and adopt Slavonic names.
The wedding ritual was
resurrected with vigour among the Pomaks -- Slavs who converted to Islam under Ottoman
rule and now make up 2.5 percent of Bulgaria's 7.8 million population -- after
communism collapsed in 1989.
But today it is still
performed only in the closed society of Ribnovo and one other village in the
Balkan country. Young men return from abroad to the crisp mountain snows, just
for the winter weddings.
People in Ribnovo identify
themselves more by their religion, as Muslims, than by their ethnicity or nationality,
and the wedding ceremony is an
expression of their piety. The village has 10 clerics and two mosques for 3,500
inhabitants.
Dowry on display:
Fikrie's family have been
laboriously piling up her dowry since she was born -- mostly handmade
knit-work, quilts, coverlets, sheets, aprons, socks, carpets and rugs.
On a sunny Saturday winter
morning they hang the items on a wooden scaffolding,
50 metres long and three metres high, erected specially for the occasion on the
steep, muddy road of scruffy two-storey houses that leads to her home.
Nearly everyone in the
village comes to inspect the offerings: Fikrie's tiny homeyard has been turned
into a showroom for the furniture and household appliances the bride
has to provide for her new household.
The girl and her
husband-to-be, Moussa, 20, then lead a traditional horo dance on the central
square, joined by most of the village's youth.
But the highlight of the
ceremony, the painting
of the bride's face, comes at the end of the second day.
In a private rite open only
to female in-laws, Fikrie's face is covered in thick, chalky white paint
and decorated with colourful sequins. A long red veil covers her hair, her head
is framed with tinsel, her painted face veiled with and silvery filaments.
Clad in baggy pants and
bodice shimmering in all the colours of the rainbow, the bride is presented by
her future husband, her mother and her grandmother to the waiting crowd.
Fikrie is not permitted to
open her eyes wide until a Muslim priest blesses the young couple. Alcohol is
forbidden at the wedding receptions and sex
before marriage is taboo.
Banned rituals
Ethnographers say it is
hard to date the bridal painting ritual, as the communist regime did not encourage
studies into minority ethnic and religious groups.
"It is very likely
that it is an invented tradition. It's their way to express who they are,"
said Margarita Karamihova, an associate professor at the Ethnography Institute
of the Bulgarian Academy of Science.
Experts say Pomaks had
identity problems and faced more challenges than the majority of Muslims in
Bulgaria, who are ethnic Turks.
"In the 1960s they
would ban Islamic music at weddings, then they would not allow traditional
clothes, and in the 1980s, the whole traditional Pomak wedding was
banned," said municipality mayor, Ahmed Bashev, born in Ribnovo.
Ribnovo's inhabitants used
to make a living from tobacco and agriculture, but low incomes in the
poorest EU country forced men to start seeking jobs in cities in Bulgaria or in
western Europe -- not least to raise money for a wedding.
Outside influences have
been slow to reach Ribnovo and young people rarely marry an outsider. Another
Fikrie, 19-year-old Fikrie Inuzova, suggested the women, for whom the
acceptable bridal age is up to 22, are not in a rush to modernise.
"My brother wants to travel, see the world... It's different for men. They can do whatever. I want to stay here and marry."
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