The kurdish bride - Kurdistan - Michele Cirillo

The Kurdish Bride

Kurdistan, Turkey - 2014

Texts and photographs by Michele Cirillo and Emanuela Laurenti

Xarik (Dogubayazit, Kurdistan).Sukran and Samet, in the bride family home, waiting for the arrival of relatives and friends of the village.
Exclusively women, of the family or neighbours of the village, contribute to wedding preparations, such as packaging imis, bags filled with roasted chickpeas and dried fruit, offered to the guests as party favors.
While men are out of the house intent on drinking tea and smoking, women gather together in a room to dance. The govend is the most typical Kurdish dance: group dances performed in-line or semicircle by men and women mainly separated.
Sukran and Samet. 20 years both. After three years of phone only relationship decide to get married. In Xarik, marry a Turkish man is a good omen, it is a liberation from poverty of the village. But according to tradition, to propose in marriage Kurdish girls mostly are Turkish men suffering from physical and mental disabilities or elderly people, nearly always marginalized. In exchange for the hand of his daughter, the bride's father receives, by agreement, a large dowry. For Sukran and Samet wedding no dowry has been agreed.
The universe of Kurdish women in the villages on the mountains is only within the home and family, where traditional society strongly marked the space division by gender. Their freedom, the opportunity to study as well as to carry out work outside of the household, is severely limited by social customs. Nevertheless, Kurdish women are not binded as in other parts of the Muslim world. In fact, they cover their heads but wearing the veil is not an obligation.
During celebrations, friends and relatives, mainly women and children from the village, are still coming.
During celebrations, friends and relatives, mainly women and children from the village, are still coming.
A baby sleeps in one of the rooms of the house, on the morning after celebrations. Domestic environments are simple, without furniture. All equipedd with rugs and pillows, the few rooms in the house, beyond the kitchen, are used as dormitory nightlong.
Xarik is a village located outside the town, in the countryside of high altitude surrounding Dugubayazit, a dusty frontier town with Iran and Armenia, provincial district of Agri (in Eastern Anatolia). And above all, at the feet of Mount Ararat. Here the population is mainly of Kurdish origin.
The path to the village of Xarik is characterized by vast plains and dirt paths.
Yozgat (Central Anatolia, Turkey). Leaving the parental home of the bride, relatives, friends and spouses moving in the Turkish city, groom's country of origin, where they will continue new preparations, ceremonies and celebrations of Turkish tradition.
Women cover their heads but wearing the veil is not an obligation. The hairstyle, for special events like weddings, is particularly characteristic.
The wedding dress of Sukran who will wear during the celebrations Turks.
Usually the bridal's party can last from two days to a week, according to the budget, and is traditionally held in the groom's house, entirely organized by his family that reveal the bride as a new member.
Sukran and Samet just before the start of new celebrations, are leaving the house, accompanied by their witnesses, to meet guests and relatives. All marriage rituals take place within the space of a courtyard, the entrance access road to the house.
The Kurdish hospitality ritual is showed definitely with the chai offering, the traditional black tea, served in typical cylindrical cups, which accompanies every moment of their days.
Sukran and Samet.
As well as in the Kurdish tradition, also here great importance is given to dances. Celebrations continue into the night.
Sukran and Samet dancing
It is up to the eldest brother of Sukran ties a red ribbon around her waist, as a fertility omen. Soon will come the groom, followed by all the relatives and friends, to simulate the bride's kidnapping.
A long procession of friends and relatives, follows and accompanies the bride and groom "on the run" in the high woodlands of Yozgat.
A long procession of friends and relatives, follows and accompanies the bride and groom "on the run" in the high woodlands of Yozgat.
The civil marriage between spouses imperatively come first the religious one, then celebrated by the Imam, according to Islamic ritual.
Offers and gifts of friends and family are noted, communicated and then gathered in front of everyone.
The bride greets relatives in the house where she will live from that day onwards.
Until the last day of the festivities Samet and Sukran will not sleep in the same house nor in the same room.

Premise

Only scratched in the surface by the passing of time, by the Islamic conquest and other foreign dominations, the Kurdish culture is now in danger of being forgotten, or worse, losing its true identity, confused in recent years with the Muslim or Turkish tradition.
Put through to the Ottoman Empire and then divided by the Western powers in the four states of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, in the last ninety years, the Kurds have been victims of persecutions and slaughters that occurred with greater ferocity in Turkey, where a regime of forced repression resented every expression of their cultural identity.

“Mountain Turks”. As Turks called Kurdish people.

But in those mountains, dominated by the great Ararat, unquestionably still persist the flavors of ancient and specific traditions, traces of a thousand-years old past, vestiges of a precise and recognizable identity.
Among those mountains, the first days of the wedding of Sükran and Samet took place, a symbolic union, especially because of their origins and historical events: Sükran is Kurdish, Samet is Turkish.
Our journey starts here. In August 2014, at Xarik place as first, in Eastern Anatolia, and at Yozgat then, in Central Anatolia.

The Wedding

In the social structure Kurdish family is considered an inseparable unit: it is the core on which dipend the whole society and its importance is manifested on the occasion of a marriage.
Specifically, the Sükran and Samet wedding party lasted five days: the first part of the celebrations was held in the bride family home, in the altitudes of Xarik, with sober characters although colored. The remaining four days of celebrations, took place, with the most sumptuous atmospheres, in the groom's family house.

In Yozgat, a Turkish small town.

The criteria that direct the marriage of two young people often dipend on the relationship between their families. Even if there is not anymore the custom to give in marriage young girls, young men have some freedom of choice, young women even less, waiting for a sincere marriage proposal. The history of Sükran and Samet fortunately is a different story.

La sposa curda

Premessa
Scalfita solo superficialmente dal trascorrere del tempo, dalla conquista islamica e da altre dominazioni straniere, la cultura curda rischia oggi di esser dimenticata, o peggio ancora, di perdere la sua vera identità, confusa negli ultimi anni con la tradizione musulmana o turca.
Assoggettati dall’Impero Ottomano e poi suddivisi dalle potenze occidentali nei quattro Stati di Turchia, Iraq, Iran e Siria, negli ultimi novanta anni, i curdi sono stati vittime di persecuzioni e stermini avvenuti con maggior ferocia in Turchia, dove un regime di repressione forzata ha mal tollerato ogni espressione della loro identità culturale.

"Turchi di montagna". Fu definito così il popolo curdo dai turchi.

Ma tra quelle montagne, sovrastate dal grande Ararat, persistono indiscutibilmente i sapori di antiche e specifiche tradizioni, tracce di un passato millenario, vestigia di un’identità precisa e riconoscibile. Tra quelle montagne, si sono svolti i primi giorni delle nozze di Şükran e Samet, un’unione soprattutto simbolica tra le loro origini e vicissitudini storiche: Şükran è curda, Samet turco.
Parte da qui il nostro viaggio. Nell’agosto del 2014, nei luoghi di Xarik dapprima, nell’Anatolia orientale, e di Yozgat poi, nell’Anatolia centrale.

Il matrimonio
Nella struttura sociale curda la famiglia è considerata un'unità inscindibile: è il nucleo fondamentale su cui è imperniata l'intera società e la cui importanza si manifesta proprio in occasione di un matrimonio.   Nello specifico, la festa nuziale di Şükran e Samet ha avuto una durata di cinque giorni: la prima parte dei festeggiamenti si è svolta nella casa paterna della sposa, tra le altitudini di Xarik, con toni decisamente sobri seppur coloriti. I restanti quattro giorni di celebrazioni, dalle atmosfere più sontuose, hanno avuto luogo, invece, nella casa della famiglia dello sposo. A Yozgat, cittadina turca.

I criteri che dirigono l'unione tra due giovani riguardano spesso i rapporti esistenti tra le rispettive famiglie. Benché non esista più l'usanza di destinare in spose le bambine, ai giovani rimane poca libertà di scelta, alle giovani donne ancor meno, nell'attesa più o meno sentita di un'offerta di matrimonio.  La storia di Şükran e Samet è una storia fortunatamente diversa.

2017 | Hermitage Museum - St.Petersburg - "The Kurdish Bride" - Group Exhibitions | 1st Place - Media Congress "Dialog of Culture" - Project "The Kurdish Bride"

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Michele Cirillo |