Lemoon is a bridal exchange for her intended husband's sister who on the same day marries her widowed father in Fargo, ND. She is being dressed by the bridegroom's family and veiled with an avri of orange and black silk which she wears when entering her wedding celebration.
Katrina Thomas's notes: A Middle Eastern minority populace, inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes parts of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, Kurds are Sunni Muslims without a stable homeland. Fleeing Iraq, they have sought asylum in the U.S., where a significant number have settled in Nashville, TN. Marriages are arranged and the couple is considered to be married when the mahr is paid, although neither party need be present. My only opportunity to photograph is on a wedding day, when the bride is being prepared to meet her bridegroom for the first time, and after, at the reception, when their guests are dancing and the newlyweds are sitting sit side-by-side on the sidelines.
