WWalter

Yara is in Germany with a Schengen-Visa. She does NOT have the benefits of a refugee status (2 years residence), because she did not live in the Ukraine prior to 2022-02-24. So, in other words, she has to leave Germany after the Schengen visa expires (latest after 182 days) and cannot re-enter in any Schengen country (= EU) for another 183 days (out of 365) then. To keep her green card, she has to be in the US for 180 days anyway. The same (except the US stay requirement) applies for her daughter, too.

So, Yara lives now in Czechia (Prag) and does not know when and if she will return? I wonder why she thinks she can live anywhere she wants - because she has only a 90day visa for the EU (Schengen visa). She will, for several reasons, not qualify for a refugee visa (she didn't live in Ukraine to start with). So, after 90 days she will have to abandon the EU and return to the US. TV make things always seem so easy and let more questions unanswered than answered. :-)

I am thinking ... did anybody even consider the situation where Sojaboy is married to two women and then applies for a green card? :-) Of course, the whole situation is scripted, but it seems to me nobody thought a bit more about this little, but quite important, detail ... at least, I did not hear it being an issue.

The word, from which it origins, is "Kamarband" (indian) meaning "waist band". There are actually various spellings, also "cummerband", it depends on how it is pronounced. Since the english language speak the "a" in a certain way (different from languages like Indian, German, French, etc.), it became "cummerbund" to reflect the original sound (speak the 3 "a" in "Kamarband" as the a in "archbishop", then you come close. Funny fact is that in German, the word was picked from the english language and became then "Kummerbund" rather than Kammarband (as it should have) - and is now spoken like "Koommerboont". :-)

Tunisia is not exactly Saudi-Arabia or Iran. :-) BTW, in Tunisia, non-muslims are, by law, even allowed to marry muslims - this was not mentioned in the show ... and neither was the dowry that Hamza had to pay her. Trust me, nobody would have cared about that - except the film crew, perhaps. :-)

If the other guests have cars, they will rather drive honking through the streets, in this case, to the notary where the marriage contract was being signed - and back home. There are other occasions for that, as well - eg. when the bride and/or groom is being driven to the place where the wedding takes place. Sometimes, it is even accompanied by an open truck with a rented band on it playing traditional music all the way. :-) What appeared to be strange is that there were only a few people present at the wedding - normally, everybody is invited and you will have 10, 20 and more neighbours showing up there faster than one can blink an eye. :-) I attended a wedding once, where about 10 people were explicitely invited and I wondered about lots of chairs standing there. Well, 10 minutes after the celebration started, there were 120 people present. And when I see a wedding, I will, of course, join in or at least watch from the sideline.

Which would be of no consequence, since the islamic and tunsian law do not recognize postnup agreements (not that it matters, because the tunisian default is seperation of property anyway) - which is important just in one case: if he decides to divorce her before a tunisian court). So ... clearly a drama spun up by the production company. :-) It is not very uncommon to shorten it - usually, only ONE, sometimes two, of the five days, both the fiancees are present at the same place anyway...

He has, according to the show, no assets and no income. In this case, he won't be able to marry a tunisian even with less dispositions. :-) By law, the husband has to pay the maintenance of his wife, which is why tunsian women and their families make sure that the husband can live up to that - and some tunisian men like to marry women from other countries, where this law does not apply... :-). In fact, if a husband cannot pay for his wifes maintenance and he did NOT tell her that before the wedding, the wife can ask the court for a divorce (only in fresh marriages, though).

That is the case. :-)

It is socially not really acceptable (sometimes tolerated though) to marry a man from western countries (unless the man is of tunisian origin). In this regard, there are not many marriages between tunisian women and western men - although they are more likely to turn out well than the reversed combination.

It is simply producer driven drama. The lawyer should have been aware that the marriage was to be made not according to US, but to tunisian law and US regulations would not apply. In fact, alle clauses that are against the common law in Tunisia would be void anyway. All that Mephis has to do is to have the clause she wanted to be put into the mandatory (by law) marriage contract in Tunisia - or not do anything at all, because seperation of property is the default in Tunisia anyway (once introduced to keep women from access to the husbands property...). There are rather other things to watch for, which did not even get mentioned... She might have wanted to read the website www.tunisia-love.com first. :-) My wife still does it today, in public, across several aisles in the supermarket. :-)

Well, muslim marriages are sometimes very different from what one would expect, and this goes for Tunisia, too. Very often you would get deep insights not only with the bride, but also with female guests. :-) Anyway, the daughter of the mother also wears no headscarf, which is quite normal in Tunisia, espcially amongst the younger population. BTW, until the uprising 12 years ago, it was even forbidden in Tunisia to wear "non-historic" clothes and outfit in public. By then, beards and afghan-style clothes with men and veils with women were considered to fall into this category and resulted in friendly talks with the police. After the uprising and regime change, islamic clothes were allowed again.

In Tunisia, a prenuptial agreement is actually mandatory. It is usually a part of the marriage contract (in Islam, marriage is not a sacrament but a contract). And the default in Tunisia in absence of other agreements is seperation of property anyway (actually, not that the man cannot get property of the woman, but that the woman cannot get property of the man...). In case of death the islamic law applies on heritage. Therefore I assume that TLC brought up some drama here. :-) Unless the wife can contribute to the expenses in a marriage (she could choose not to work, for example), an husband has to keep up the wife namely in clothes, medical care, nutrition and flat UNTIL they divorce. The mandatory upkeep of a wife ends usually 90 days after a divorce (when there are no children). -ehem- (... which is why tunisian men love to marry foreign women who like to share things...)

Having written the above - I am not sure that what we see on TV is what happened in real life. It can well be that it is the shows intention to characterize some people in a specific way that can -and will- lead us to take wrong conclusions. 🙂 After all, TV is today about entertainment - the time of factuality and information has been gone for quite some time...

Not automatically - pretending love and meaning visa or green card is independent from having money or education. For some people, all their money and education cannot buy the ticket out of the country. However, a good education and a serious (!) liberal world view and behaviour increases the chances that one is not engaging in "Bezness" a great deal. However, I did not see the liberal world view or behaviour here (in my line of work I have talked to and experienced quite a few syrian academics in the past years - there are these ... and there are those).