Sana’a, Yemen - Tribal traditions and Yemeni Jew’s marriages from Israel and America ignites dowry prices
In recent years, many love stories have spread between Jewish girls and Muslim males in Yemen, which ended in marriage.
These occasions did not pass unnoticed, but rather witnessed a great uproar. Many outside parties got involved, in which some cases were reported to the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a, in an attempt by some extremist Jews to disengage families between those girls and their Muslim husbands.
Al-Dar Kuwaiti newspaper opened the case ‘Yemen’s Jewish Girls Marriage to Muslim Men’, where it questioned the Jewish rabbi and leader of the Jewish community in Yemen, Yahya Yousuf, asking, do Jews find it critical for Muslims to marry Jewish girls?
He replied that he doesn’t object this kind of marriage, adding that the objection of the Jewish community in the recent marriage of Laila, the latest young Jewish woman who got married to a Yemeni man, was not as a result of her identity as a Jew, but because she left her Jewish husband, after she was taken to him, then fled after she embraced Islam to marry a young Muslim called, Abdul-Rahman Al-Hodiqi.
Some people do not have honor
The Jewish Rabbisaid that marriages which took place between Jewish females and Muslim males begin when the Jew girls convert to Islam and then they marry Muslim men.
He said “The past years have witnessed nearly ten marriage ceremonies between Jewish girls and Muslim men in Yemen”.
On the future of marital relations between the two sides, he said there are good Muslims and their life with their Jewish wife culminated in calmness and stability. On the other hand, others have no honor, according to his expression, where the husband treats his wife in a bad way after they have taken her from her family and after becoming a Muslim.
About the future of the relationship of the Jewish families with their girls who became Muslims, Rabbi Yahya Yousuf said “It’s a normal relationship and there is nothing with that”.
Condolence for a week
For his part, Rabbi, Yahya ibn Yaeesh, who lives in Raidah area, which houses the largest Jewish community in Yemen, believes that the marriages of Jewish girls to Muslims is normal and that these marriages are built on love, which happens between the two parties and ends with marriage.
At the same time, he ruled out that there are religious grounds for such marriages, adding that “Jewish girl’s marriage to a Muslim is a desire generated on both sides in the marriage, further, Jewish women do not marry Muslims for Islam”.
He added that there are a number of girls of the Jewish community who were married to Muslims after embracing Islam, as this phenomenon has become normal, after the Jewish community has gotten used to it, and that the phenomenon is not negative. If Yemeni Jews choose to travel to Israel, that means they choose to be in the lower class, and Israel turns their children into Zionists, which is an unrelated movement to the Jewish religion, because it is purely a racist movement, he said.
If a Jewish women in Yemen ran away and announced that she converted to Islam and married a Muslim, always, the members of the Jewish community meet at the girl’s father house and give him condolence, considering the girl dead and that her life ended by her converting to Islam.
The condolences continue for a full week, which is considered by Jews as sympathy for the girl’s family and to all Jews for losing one member of the Jews community.
Israeli Jews ignite dowry prices
The rabbi of Yemeni Jews in Aal-Salem area in Sa’ada province, Yahya Yousuf Mousa said that the Jewish families who moved from their hometown in Sa’ada province to the Tourist City in the capital Sana’a, found themselves unable to provide the required funds to marry their male sons by girls from the same sect, as the families of the girls ask for amounts up to YR 1,500,000.
He added that some Jewish females have become maidens and some girls ages pass thirty-five, because their families demand large amounts of money from those who want to marry them. This leads them to live without marriage, therefore, some of these girls leave their religion and embrace Islam and marry Muslims in Yemen.
Rabbi Yahya Yousuf pointed out that this phenomenon only started a few years ago. But this situation has changed because Yemeni immigrants of Jewish families in the U.S., Britain, some in Israel and other countries marry their sons of Jewish girls living in Yemen, where those families pay large sums of money in exchange for marriage.
Ninawa “The convert to Islam”
Ninawa Sulaiman Al-Oabdi from Raidah area says that she converted to Islam on her own will and denied that she faced any pressure.
Ninawa, 18, who holds educational qualifications in the fields of Talmud and Judaism in the U.S., said that her entry to Islam stems from an overwhelming will by her to do so.
She said “I felt a desire to enter Islam, when I saw people praying and fasting. That made me feel relaxed and I feel happy when I sit alone listening to the prayer and recite verses of the Holy Quran in the mosque beside our house”.
Ninawa, who has chosen a new name for herself, Amat-Al-Rahman after she married Hani Ali Hadi Saran, added that she was living in a tight situation, which at one time led her to attempt suicide by using poison, but was guided to Islam.
Implications of Ninawa’s Islam
Some followers of the Jewish community in Yemen have stepped up the story of Ninawa’s Islam, demanding the Muslim community to hand her over to them. They also addressed this to the security authorities in Amran governorate. That step has been followed by huge security moves, including a number of military vehicles laden with dozens of soldiers to bring back the girl.
On the other hand, mass groups of armed tribesmen of Raidah area of Amran province were gathered together, in case of possible clashes between residents and security authorities, which demanded to hand over of the Jewish girl, who converted to Islam.
Also, many calls were made by several senior figures in the State, asking the wise to intervene as mediators for the girl’s husband to convince him to return her back to her Jewish family, who also talked to the U.S. Embassy to put extra pressure on the Yemeni government to bring her back.
In front of all the attendees, Ninawa told them that her converting to Islam stems from her strong belief without any compulsion, saying that she does not wish to return to having a Jewish life, and that she agreed to marry a Muslim with all her heart.
Meanwhile, her husband confirmed that he would not abandon her and will not allow anyone to harm, arrest or return her to the Jewish religion, whatever the reasons or the cost might be.
Despite this, security authorities are still threatening to hand over the girl to the Jewish community and to break into the area and arrest her.
The U.S. Embassy in Sana’a tried to intervene, but it seems that the girl’s insistence on her position made the American intervention in her case, irrelevant.
Legendary wedding
The story of the young Jewish ‘Laila’, may be the most awkward love story ever, as she fled on her wedding night last July, to follow the person she loves, Abdul-Rahman, who lives in Raidah area, and who she has known since her childhood.
Local sources that witnessed her flee incident and participated in her wedding said that Laila had a relationship with her (now Muslim) husband, who is from Raidah and they had planned to get married. However, after her family knew of her love to a Muslim man, they forced her to marry a member of the Jewish community and set up the wedding in Sana’a, but she escaped on her wedding night.
The Jewish community invited many officials in the state, Sheikhs and journalists. But Laila succeeded in deceiving her Jewish husband on the first night, and decided to flee with her lover in the second night.
Despite the tight security measures and surveillance cameras deployed in the Tourist City, Laila fled through the main gate to meet her lover, riding with him in his car. Both left the scene and traveled to Arhab Tribe, north of the capital. Her lover handed her to a well-known tribal elder in the tribe for security.
The source said that the wedding of Laila was the largest wedding ever in Yemen, where the convoy of cars was estimated at more than a hundred, including hundreds of armed tribal members from Raidah. As it is usual in Yemen, heavy gun-fires were fired; and their marriage was described as the first time that a woman in Yemen marry’s in this way.
For its part, Arhab tribe after having brought the bride to her new home, said that the tribe considered Laila as one of the tribe’s daughters and from that moment she became their sister.