‘Marriage Completes Half Your Religion, Sister’
‘Marriage Completes Half Your Religion, Sister’
Salafi Match-Making
This is a colourful account of Salafi women’s struggles to find the ideal husband. It describes how the women painstakingly investigated their suitors—for example, by distributing ‘reference forms’, one of which is included—to whom they were only permitted to speak occasionally in the presence of a chaperone. They were determined to root out tyrannical or otherwise unsuitable candidates, aware that wifely obedience would be obligatory. Some were perturbed by stories of Salafi husbands who were abusive or led double lives. The women also often had to contend with their non-Salafi family’s preference for sons-in-law of the same ethnic background, as well as their reluctance to assist as chaperones. Yet, conscious of living in a hypersexualized Western society, the women considered the Salafi approach to relationships as the safest because it was underpinned by divine ‘guarantees’ and required men to respect women by heavily restricting interaction outside marriage.
Keywords: Muslim marriage, gender segregation, obedience to husbands, ethnicity, Muslim match-making, Salafi women, gender roles, Muslim spinster crisis, sexualization of society
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