A woman uninvited her longtime friend from her wedding after the friend refused to follow the dress code for her religious wedding in a mosque.
“I am 23F and I’m getting married to my fiancé 25M in March. I sent out the invitations for the wedding before the Christmas holidays but now one friend (Ellie) has taken issue with the dress code,” the bride-to-be wrote via Reddit.
“Fiancé and I are both practicing Muslims who both have several close non Muslim friends. We have managed to find a masjid that is able to perform our nikah (religious marriage) as well as being registered to perform the civil marriage,” she continued.
Since the wedding is going to take place in a mosque, she requested all guests dress “respectfully and be covered.”
“None of our other friends or relatives (those who don’t usually follow the rules of modest dress for either men or women in their day to day) have had an issue with this. Ellie has taken issue with the dress code. I tried to explain it nicely to her at first that it’s a place of worship and she needs to be respectful of that but she’s just getting more and more aggro about it,” the bride-to-be continued.
Eventually, Ellie told her she planned to wear “whatever she wanted” and that the bride would just have to “deal with it.” Now, she’s been uninvited from the wedding.
“I messaged her back and said ‘Ellie I can’t make you dress appropriately but if you don’t then you can’t come to the wedding.’ Now she’s texting the [group chat] saying I’m excluding her from my wedding for stupid reasons and that I have an agenda against her for being an atheist,” the bride-to-be shared.
In the comments section, Reddit users rallied behind the bride-to-be, supporting her decision to disinvite her friend.
“It’s your wedding. I am an atheist. If I go to a religious wedding I wear clothes that are appropriate. I won’t wear religious clothes, like a cross, but if you want my collarbone and wrist covered, that’s fine. It’s showing respect for other people’s traditions and cultures,” one person wrote.
“It is not oppressive to be polite and respectful when entering someone’s place of worship. I’m not Catholic, but I damn well dressed appropriately when I got to visit the Vatican. When I go to church with my wife for Christmas, I’m dressing respectfully. Were I invited to the wedding of a Muslim, I’d dress as asked as well, no issue,” another commented.
“Being an atheist is irrelevant. She wants to attend a religious service, and of course she has to conform to the faith’s dictates about dress whilst doing so,” someone else shared.