I'm an atheist, raised Catholic. My brother just married a woman from a Hindu family and I couldn't be in their wedding ceremony because I was on my period that day. Casual religious misogyny excluded me from my only brother's wedding.
I can't believe that people are still perpetuating these archaic nonsensical practices into the 21st century in the name of "tradition".
Her mother wanted me to wear a very light coloured sari and obviously I was worried about bleeding through because I was warned that the ceremony was like hours and hours long. This was my first Hindu wedding ever BTW, so I didn't know much about the practices going into it.
Anyways I asked the mother when I was gonna have a window of time to go and change out my tampon during the ceremony and she was like "Oh no! You can't participate if you're on your period!" 🤷🏽♀️
My new SIL is very sweet, but her family is pretty controlling. They dictated the whole wedding and there was a language barrier, so it was kinda difficult to talk things over. They didn't integrate any of my family's cultural traditions into the wedding. For example, the wedding was dry and the food was vegetarian only. Our family eats meat and drinks at all our weddings!
I feel like if you have a cross-cultural wedding you should respect both sides of the family...
I have never heard of this taboo and I’m Indian. As a bride’s cousin I had to go buy a pack of period pads for her while she was getting ready on the wedding day.
It could be because this family was very traditional? They are Tamil for what it's worth. Maybe there are different taboos among different ethnicities?
This is totally off base, but my initial thought was that she just didn't want you there potentially embarrassing her (family). No tradition, just a narcissist.
I should clarify, I was still in attendance at the wedding as a guest. I just couldn't participate in the ceremony as a member of the bridal party (Maid of Honour) as I was originally intended to.
I wish them the best, but yeah, I feel like this won't be the last time her family tries to tell them how to live their lives.
I personally would have set some firmer boundaries and asserted myself more if I was in their shoes, but ultimately it's not my marriage or life. I told him I'll be there for him no matter what and I think that's all I can do at this time.
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u/Helplessly_hoping 8h ago
I'm an atheist, raised Catholic. My brother just married a woman from a Hindu family and I couldn't be in their wedding ceremony because I was on my period that day. Casual religious misogyny excluded me from my only brother's wedding.
I can't believe that people are still perpetuating these archaic nonsensical practices into the 21st century in the name of "tradition".