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Family Life in Somalia

The family is very important in every country as societies are made up of families and family life varies between countries. In Somalia, marriage involves a long process where the man's elders propose to the girl's family with a gift of camels depending on the man's wealth and girl's reputation. Divorce was rare as marriage was difficult and if initiated by the husband, he had to pay the mehr (dowry) but women did not get their mehr if they sought divorce. Somali families are typically large with 6-9 members and some men have over 20 children through polygamy which is allowed in Islam. Extended families are also very common in Somalia. [/SUMMARY]

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Daahirshiiq Madoobe
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184 views1 page

Family Life in Somalia

The family is very important in every country as societies are made up of families and family life varies between countries. In Somalia, marriage involves a long process where the man's elders propose to the girl's family with a gift of camels depending on the man's wealth and girl's reputation. Divorce was rare as marriage was difficult and if initiated by the husband, he had to pay the mehr (dowry) but women did not get their mehr if they sought divorce. Somali families are typically large with 6-9 members and some men have over 20 children through polygamy which is allowed in Islam. Extended families are also very common in Somalia. [/SUMMARY]

Uploaded by

Daahirshiiq Madoobe
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The family is very important in every country because the country consists societies and every society

consists of families. Every country has a unique family life like the way of marriage, divorce and the
family size. Also the life of family in every country is changing year after year.

In Somalia, marriage is a long process. In the country side, the elders of the man have to go to the girl's
family to make the proposal. The girl's family is given by number of camels (10 to 100) depending on the
men's economy and the girl's reputation. If the girl's father is highly respected man, then the cost will be
higher. Mostly the girl's choice is not considered. She has to accept her father's decision. Many years
ago, the boy should marry or the girl should be married before he or she get twenty years old. Above
that the boy or the girl would be considered bad luck person.

like the other cultures, divorce was rare in the Somali society. one of the main reason why divorce was
not popular is that the marriage was not easy. if the husband wants to divorce his wife, he has to pay
her mehr (mehris a gold or livestock which is promised to a bride by a groom upon marriage). if the
divorce come from woman, she has no right to claim her mehr.

The family size in Somalia is big as compared to many countries in the world. The average family size in
Somalia is between 6 and 9 members including the father and the mother. Somali people like to have
many children. As we are Muslim, men are allowed to marry up to four women. So some men have
more than twenty children. Extended family is very popular in somalia. We can say more that 90 percent
of the families in somalia is an extended family.

In conclusion, Before fifty years ago, almost 70 percent of the somali people lived in the country side.
For the last five decades, people are moving in to the big cities and everything is changing like marriage
style, divorce rate is increasing, the family size in decreasing, polygomy is becoming something
uncommon. It is believed that these changes will continue and the western culture will evolve in to
somali culture.

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