Ten bizzare Middle Eastern traditions and practices

1.A woman’s name is a shame and the brides name is concealed

In some Arab societies, the name of women is considered 'awrah', as men are ashamed to disclose the names of their mahrams (mother, wife and sister). As a result, the name of the woman is concealed from the most related things to her, such as a wedding invitation card or a declaration of death. It is normal for Arab countries to receive a wedding card for the bridegroom, in which the name of the bridegroom is written in bold. The name of the bride is hidden and replaced by the term "his precious".

2.Folk marriage

Is to dissolve the bride's bridegroom by hand or what is known in Egypt as "the municipal entry." The habit is widespread in Upper Egypt, but it is now low.
In the municipal dakhla, the bride is forced to lie on her marital bed, in the presence of her mother, groom, mother or sister, and sometimes attend a midwife who takes the lead role in the scene instead of the husband.
The midwife or the husband stands opposite the bride, lifts her dress and stretches out the hand of someone who, according to the usual expression of "taking the honor", with a finger wrapped in a white tissue, keeps the nail visible, dissolves the hymen. The husband or the midwife will come out with the blood drops and lift him up in front of everyone.
Mahadin says that "municipal intervention is the most obvious form of Arab thought, which limits all the meanings of honor and morality and chastity a narrow area of ​​the body of women." "As long as this area has been the focus of people and civilizations, in a previous period people were worshiping the chickens as a source of life and as a result of the idea of ​​birth."

3.Honor killings

Honor crimes are a well-known term in Arab countries, but it is a shock to other peoples. These crimes are defined as reprisals with the intention of killing or otherwise, committed by members of the family to one or more individuals or from outside, under the pretext of preserving the reputation of the family and its inherited status. Although this crime may be victimized by both sexes, the victim is often the female.

Crimes in the name of honor are a form of violence against women, as identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) when it issued its 2002 report on violence and health. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that 5,000 women have been murdered under the pretext of family honor in the world in general, and the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia in particular.

  

4.Honor whitening

Is considered one of the common provisions in the Jordanian tribal judiciary, and is adopted in a number of countries of the Levant, specifically in tribal societies.

"Tribal judiciary stressed the subject of honor, and impose high fines and a severe punishment and deterrent, to those defame women in their honor, including those provisions known as honor bleaching.

"If a woman is falsely accused of being unfaithful and later found to be innocent, senior men cover the house of the lady or girl with white cloth, as a sign of the whiteness and grace of her honor, and although this practice has roots for hundreds of years, "He said. "A few years ago, I participated in whitening bid for a woman, her husband accused her of being unfaithful, and after failing to find evidence, the tribal judiciary ruled the wife to be innocent and honor whitening rituals should take place, to remove any suspicion."

5.The exchange of tribal women

Arab and foreign media reported that an Iraqi clan in the Basra region had been granted 51 wives as wives of another tribe to settle differences between the two tribes in what is known as Iraq and other Arab countries as "the marriage of the tribe."

It is possible to say that "this habit has seen a great development, whereas previously it was a reason to stop blood wasting, today we see girls, some of them minors, are married to them in spite of their desire to drop a debt from the father and brother.

6.The widow is married to her husband's brother

This is common in most Arab countries, and is rooted in thousands of years, but is mentioned in the Book of Deuteronomy: "If brothers live together and one of them dies, and has no son, the woman of the deceased shall not marry a foreign man, And he shall take it for himself as a wife, and shall carry out the duty of the brother of the husband: and the firstborn that thou giveest shall bear the name of his dead brother, lest his name be removed from Israel.

Although this practice was accepted decades ago, because the ultimate goal is for the children of the deceased to grow up within the family of their father, their rejection begins to appear with the higher education rates of women.

A woman who was forced to marry her brothers husband says "First of all, I did not accept how my husband's brother, whom I had treated for ten years as my younger brother, suddenly became my husband, and after our marriage our relationship worsened very much, because he was forced to marry a woman who was older than him, The ghost of my former husband always haunted us. "

"After about two years of marriage he married a second wife, our relationship now cannot be described as a couple, we are a couple on paper only."

7.The seventh day celebrations of new born also called the “week”

The celebration is held by the Egyptians for the newborn after a "week" of his birth. Some believe that the origin of this celebration dates back to the modern ancient egyptian state because of the presence of some rituals that resemble the celebrations of the “week”. It is said that the Pharaohs were celebrating the week of the child believing that the hearing begins on the seventh day after the birth of the child so they speak vocal next to his ears so that the sense of hearing is in high efficiency in addition to hanging a ring in the ear of the baby - the ring of the goddess Isis - then whispering in the ear of the child to encourage him to obey the gods.
With the passage of time and the entry of Islam it changed some of the details as the week is still celebrated in Egypt, but it is nowadays the celebration has chickpeas, clothes, chocolate and peanuts and some toys for the child, it is possible to add Stan tape and write the name of the baby and the date of birth with phrases known to be said in this celebration.

In addition to bringing the sieve in which the child is placed and the mother passes over her child in it 7 times, while one of the women shaking the baby while saying some fixed words in addition to a group of other rituals.

8.Greeting by kissing or touching the nose

There are many ways to greet people we meet face-to-face, the most famous of which is shaking hands. However, one of the strangest peace practices that occur in the Arabian Peninsula in some Gulf countries such as Kuwait and Oman, where greeting is usually given by kissing the nose, which is a sign of respect, usually inherited from the ancestors of those countries.
The kissing is in the form of a greeting by beating the noses together with a blow or two or three, because of their belief that the nose is the symbol of pride and superiority among the Arabs. Taking into account that the habit of kissing the nose itself may vary depending on the person or circumstances.
In the description of kissing the nose it is said: When two people meet, they may shake hands and then start touching each other's nose, and this process may be done without shaking hands. It is also possible that the first person puts his right hand on the left shoulder of the other person, and the second person does the same, each touching the other's nose once or twice or three times in a sequential, quick and speechless manner. Then the greeting begins and the questions arises.
When a person greets a person of old age or status, such as the sheikhs or the sheikh of the tribe, he must first accept his nose and then touch him with his nose immediately.

9.Force feeding young girls

This is especially common in Mauritania, where Mauritanian society appreciates overweight women, whose extra weight is a sign of their beauty and a sign of the wealth of their families. So it is the practice of Mauritania that families send their daughters to private places where they feed them huge amounts of food to gain weight, and thus increase their chances of marriage.
Often, the food that girls are forced to eat is made up of dates, couscous and other foods that increase weight. Girls daily eat up to four times as much as men, and girls are often fed by force.
Statistics say at least one out of every 10 girls is doing it, and that habit has begun to decline because of the government’s war on that practice threatens the life and wellbeing of these innocent girls.

10.Evil Eye phobia

The evil eye concept is rampant amongst Arab societies, with envy and hatred often considered a cause. As a result, many people believe the evil eye can cause impairment, sterility, childbirth problems, deficient breast milk, domestic problems, accidents, illnesses and unemployment.

The evil eye is also thought to affect children, adults, livestock and people’s possessions. People who are young, wealthy and particularly handsome are considered more at risk.

The belief in the evil eye is more common amongst rural societies in the Middle East, to counter the evil eye one should recite certain verses from the Quran, wear a blue colored pearl or anything blue as it’s believed that the color blue repels these malicious energies.

If you the middle east you will be shocked of how common is this belief, and many middle eastern people developed a genuine phobia, thus affecting their lives in a great way, some cut ties with people whom they belief to possess a strong evil eye, some keep their children hidden from other people, I personally know  a friend who bought a new car he would park it in another street and walk a considerable distant to reach it, also he kept it a secret that he bought a new car and would deny any claims that he bought a new car, so he would not get cursed by the envious souls of his friends.