Mourning & White Clothes For women

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I just found out that not long ago, Somali (and Horn of African including Sudanese) women used to wear white clothes when they were mourning the death of a loved one for forty days and it's no longer practised because the salafis called it bid'a. Is it still practiced anywhere (Somalia, Somaliland, Jibouti, Killinka and NFD) that Somalis reside? Anyone know it's origins? No guesses please.
 
whats that

Xoosh

Aan kuu taano taaneeyo. For example, when a Somali husband dies, his wife/wives, mother, sisters, aunts and adult daughters used to wear white clothes as a sign of grief and mourning for 40 days. I don't know if that culture still exists in some pockets of Somali deegaans.
 

ReeBorama

"I'd kill for a Noble Peace Prize"
It's called "Asay" which only the wife of the dead husband is required to go through! Am not sure where you heard the white clothes or that the mother or sister has to go through but that's not a Somali thing.

The Asay period lasts exactly 4 months and 10 days in which the wife is expected to refrain from wearing any clourfull or fancy dresses and perfumes.

Some even say the wife has to keep the very same non fancy dress she was wearing when the husband was pronounced dead, and can only be changed into dirac shiid/baati if needs must!
 

Jeesto

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Jeesto

Thanks, is it still practiced anywhere by Somalis?
It's a dying tradition but you can still find a few older generation women who still practice it in the rural areas. I think it has something to do with sufism.
I've met only 1 woman who did go through the whole process when her husband died
 
It's a dying tradition but you can still find a few older generation women who still practice it in the rural areas. I think it has something to do with sufism.
I've met only 1 woman who did go through the whole process when her husband died

Jeesto

Thanks, do you mean it was a Sufi tradition or they banned it?


It's called "Asay" which only the wife of the dead husband is required to go through! Am not sure where you heard the white clothes or that the mother or sister has to go through but that's not a Somali thing.

The Asay period lasts exactly 4 months and 10 days in which the wife is expected to refrain from wearing any clourfull or fancy dresses and perfumes.

Some even say the wife has to keep the very same non fancy dress she was wearing when the husband was pronounced dead, and can only be changed into dirac shiid/baati if needs must!

Borame

Thanks bro. 4 months and 10 days? I heard 40 days, but it was from a young guy and you could be correct.
 

ReeBorama

"I'd kill for a Noble Peace Prize"
Jeesto

Thanks, do you mean it was a Sufi tradition or they banned it?




Borame

Thanks bro. 4 months and 10 days? I heard 40 days, but it was from a young guy and you could be correct.

Its Borama* rather. U are wc sxb

The 40 days is to do with the Mother giving birth and is called Afartan-bax; baby shower in the West I reckon.
 

Jeesto

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Jeesto

Thanks, do you mean it was a Sufi tradition or they banned it?




Borame

Thanks bro. 4 months and 10 days? I heard 40 days, but it was from a young guy and you could be correct.
I don't know if the tradition its self predates Islam in the Horn but it was(is) widely practiced by Somali sufis. But ever since the Salafi/Wahhabism movement enterened Somalia, there have been a sharp decline in both Sufism and the Asay tradition :manny: Heck everything unique and somali in our culture is almost gone beacuse of them fuckers:mjcry:
 
Interesting bit of cultural trivia. No wonder the Salafi vandals did away with it. White is the colour of purity, and the hearts of those donkey rapers cannot stand it because their qalbi is madoow, just like their charcoal skin.
 
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