Muslim Brotherhood stages mass wedding

DAKAR
One hundred and twenty-two Muslim couples have been married by an Islamic brotherhood in Senegal, which has vowed to hold the event on a yearly basis. 

The son of the Caliph of the Layene, Baye Djine Thiaw who organised the event, said the mass wedding was in response to a “social crisis”.  
Although he did not elaborate what he meant by a “social crisis”, analysts told the Nation that by getting married, the couples would reduce the burden of living with their parents in a country with rising unemployment and economic hardship. 

50 MORE JOINED

A symbolic bride price of 3000 CFA francs about US$1,50 cents (Ksh135) was paid by each groom to get married with all of them dressed in white gowns. 

“As facilitators of the event, what we do before hand is to obtain the consent of the potential couples who are all matured adults and that of their parents as well…this is paramount”, the local media quoted Imam Thiaw as saying. 

Fifty more couples got married compared to a similar mass wedding last year, the Layene Imam explained. 

The Layene Muslim brotherhood, whose biggest mosque is located in Yoff near Dakar, is among the second most powerful local Islamic sects after the Mouride whose holy city is called Touba, located about 200 kilometres from Dakar.  

NO FORCED MARRIAGE
He rebutted allegations over the existence of forced marriage within the brotherhood.

The event took place on Saturday at their biggest Layene mosque in Yoff along the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean just a stone throw from the Leopold Sedar Senghor international airport in Dakar. 

Two years ago, the wedded couple included children as young as 10 who would respect the bond and will eventually become husband and wife when they became adults.