This house on Djerba island, North Africa’s largest island, off the Tunisian coast, is full of the scent of incense, loud trills of women, songs and music.

It belongs to local woman, Fatima, who is supervising her daughter, Awatef’s wedding ceremony. Wearing her best jewelry and a wide smile, Fatima stands in her doorway, receiving her guests and neighbors. The bride is nowhere to be seen.

This house on Djerba island, North Africa’s largest island, off the Tunisian coast, is full of the scent of incense, loud trills of women, songs and music.

It belongs to local woman, Fatima, who is supervising her daughter, Awatef’s wedding ceremony. Wearing her best jewelry and a wide smile, Fatima stands in her doorway, receiving her guests and neighbors. The bride is nowhere to be seen.

In the evening women come to the bride’s house bringing traditional symbolic gifts, part of the Hajba ceremony, a custom the island’s people have kept up for centuries.

Salha, one of Fatima’s neighbors, joins the wedding party bearing a basket of white eggs. This gift is believed to bring luck and dismiss envy. Another guest brings a basket made of palm leaves full of baked bread. This is given to the bride to eat with oil and sugar so that she stays healthy and doesn’t lose weight.

Fatima’s daughter’s wedding has most of the characteristics of a traditional wedding on Djerba, the proud mother says, noting that during the various ceremonies her daughter remains hidden in a place called the dokana.

The dokana is usually far from the centre of the action in the home of the bride’s mother. Djerba houses are very Arabic in style and usually contain a square yard in the centre. They also usually have the dokana room, which is used as a bedroom during everyday life and as a hiding place for any brides on their wedding days.

Another characteristic of the traditional Djerba wedding is the aforementioned Hajba ceremony – this means the bride is “hidden” for an entire month before she weds. The purpose of the ancient custom, Fatima explains, was to make the bride gain weight and keep her away from the sun, to keep her skin white. “In Djerba, the perfect bride should be fat and white,” Fatima notes.

Djerba’s brides often choose to start hiding on the twenty-seventh night of Ramadan – a holy month for Muslims during which they fast during the day and eat only after the sun sets – as this night is considered a holy one.

Today in the dokana, or hiding room, Awatef sits on a chair. She is wearing a loose, embroidered dress, knotted on the left side. Her face is almost completely covered by a white scarf; only her eyes are visible.

“I am very much attached to Djerba’s customs and traditions even if they are not always applied to the letter, due to changing lifestyles,” Awatef says. “I believe it is important not to forget our ancestors and the customs of our forefathers.”