Female employee #1: You need to go to church.
Female employee #2: Hell no, I can't go to church anymore [laughs mischievously].
Female employee #1: You don't go to church?
Female employee #2: Uh-uh.
Female employee #1: Whatever! Yo, at my church, like, gangs and shit be comin' on Sundays. The Crips are all on one side and the Bloods all on the other. It's crazy. They be wearin' their colors and shit, too.
--Century 21
Suheb is a young Palestinian who would like to marry his cousin. And, um, to do something else that his religious beliefs don't allow him to do until after they marry.
So why don't they just get married already?
While Christianity has for the most part set aside the economic character of marriage to focus on the couple's feeling of love, the Islamic community of which Suheb is a part continues to place a premium on family and the male's financial resources. In fact, jewelry plays a role in demonstrating a man's suitability for marriage. As Suheb explains,
There are four steps in all that have to be completed before a marriage can be consummated. First, the family of the groom must formally ask for the bride's hand in marriage. If the two families are mutually agreed, then a religious judge comes to them and reads aloud from the Quran. From this point on, the young couple is man and wife as far as Islamic law is concerned. But sex is only permitted once the whole town has been invited to a celebration and notified that the two young people now belong together. The husband-to-be also buys jewelry for his prospective wife. Suheb has spent the equivalent of 1,500 euros. That is a lot of money, he says: "But if she wasn't my cousin, it would have been even more expensive."
Annmaria is a jewelry designer, a dancer with the Paul Taylor Company, and coincidentally, an alumna of the university where I taught before my current gig. Here's a clip from her Midsummer Collection:
The intentions in this collection are primarily focused towards healing for the earth and sea. Sedna is a favorite source of Goddess connection while working with stones carrying her oceanic energy: moonstone, pearl, opal, and rhyolite, to name a few.
These are pieces supporting harmony and balance, celebrating the beauty of the natural world, and encouraging healing, forgiveness, and peace. And fun!
Photo: the divine 365 Portraits
