Kurdish Wedding (Muslim), Nashville, TN, 1994

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. Today these customs are no longer kept, except for the gowand/govand line dancing and some older men wearing traditional headdress on formal occasions. Instead, couples fall in love and are married by a mullah. Depending upon the bridegroom's wealth, the mahr may or may not be paid.