A woman holds the hand of another woman who lies on a hospital bed being treated after she attempted suicide following being forced to marry against were will. In the background a group of women weari...

A wedding in a village near Andkhoy, and a rare occurrence where men and women are standing together.

A woman examines wedding dresses for sale in a stall in Kejetia market (Kumasi Central Market). The market is thought to amongst Africa's largest, with over 10,000 individual stores.

Aicha (13) with Attika (39) arriving late at school. With a critical lack of information on contraception among young people, Aicha found herself pregnant with Attika, whom she will marry shortly on a...

Rosalie (L) in her third and last year of hairdressing training at the Foyer Sainte Maria de Goretti. She fled her family to avoid forced marriage. On the right Odile, in her first year of training, a...

The mother superior, Sister Veronique talks with Abibou (13), who fled a child marriage, at the Foyer Sainte Maria de Goretti which since 1951 has been welcoming young girls fleeing early and forced m...

Abibou (13) (right), who arrived at the home a year ago to escape a child marriage, does her studies with one of her friends in their dormitory at the Foyer Sainte Maria de Goretti which since 1951 ha...

A Buddhist monk in safron robes walks with a group of women, wearing bridal gowns, as they march in a show support for democracy and the NLD (National League for Democracy) and to voice their oppositi...

A group of women wearing bridal gowns march in a show support for democracy and the NLD (National League for Democracy) and to voice their opposition to the military following the army's coup d'etat o...

A group of women wearing bridal gowns march in a show support for democracy and the NLD (National League for Democracy) and to voice their opposition to the military following the army's coup d'etat o...

A group of women wearing bridal gowns march in a show support for democracy and the NLD (National League for Democracy) and to voice their opposition to the military following the army's coup d'etat o...

Tyre, Lebanon, April 19, 2011 Traditional wedding in Hotel Platinum. Marriage traditionel a l'Hotel Platinum. ¬Â©Nick Hannes

A group of artists wearing bridal wear costumes and holding protest placards in front of a government office building during demonstrations in support of democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD, and t...

A group of artists wearing bridal wear costumes and holding protest placards sit in front of a government office building during demonstrations in support of democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD, a...

A bride-to-be (centre), who is having her hen party during the Ariah Park Bachelor and Spinster ball, dances in the hen party's campsite. Known to locals as simply B&S balls, the events are held r...

A bride-to-be, who is having her hen party during the Ariah Park Bachelor and Spinster ball, undresses a man who has wandered from the ball into the hen party's campsite. Known to locals as simply...

Abdelkader Tbarki, 24, at home watching television with his mother Jamila Habbechi, 55. Abdelkader suffers from sickle cell disease. The disease affected Abdelkader's education, he was unable to compl...

Jamila Habbechi, 55, in the kitchen of her home. Her son Abdelkader Tbarki, 24, suffers from sickle cell disease. Consanguineous marriages are one reason for the relatively high incidence of sickle ce...

An Australian white ibis (Threskiornis moluccus) in Hyde Park where a couple are posing for wedding photographs.

During a Fulani (Peul) wedding at the Dosseye camp for refugees from Central African Republic, the 'best woman', holding a pot of artificial flowers, leads the bride out to dance for the bridegroom an...

After the bride and groom have met at the ceremonial curtain, a musician plays a traditional 'dayereh' hand drum and the women dance in celebration.

Ruxora, the bride, with her veil lifted after finally meeting the groom at the ceremonial curtain during their elaborate wedding ceremony.

After ushering the bride to the ceremonial curtain, Mukhsram, a Koranic celebrant, leads call-and-response prayers with the groom, Behzod, and female wedding guests. Behzod slowly makes his way to the...

Behzod, the groom, receives money and hugs from the guests at his wedding.

Women from the bride's family dress the 'kurpatcha' (floor mattresses to sit or sleep on) with ornately decorated fabrics and pillows. These are traditional wedding presents for the bride and groom.

As Behzod, the groom, musicians and the young men from the groom's entourage, approach the bride's house, a small fire is lit near the door, an echo of a Zoroastrian tradition. The youths wrestle thei...

Mukhsram, a Koranic celebrant, leads a prayer in Tajik while guests cup their hands in an open 'prayer' gesture.

A goat stew, made from an animal sacrificed on the groom's property, is cooking for a wedding feast.

Ruxora and Behzod, the bride and groom, holding a bowl of milk during a fertility ritual on their wedding day.

Ruxora, wearing a traditional red embroidered ceremonial dress and veil, bows slowly to the male guests at her wedding while they eat 'plov', salads, bread (lepyoshka) and cakes and drink vodka and gr...

Ruxora, veiled in a traditional wedding dress, bows while the female wedding guests sing, dance and pray.

Behzod, the groom, carrying his bride over his shoulder, approaches his family home. Her feet must not touch the floor between leaving her family home and arriving at Behzod's home. Ruxora's aunt supp...

Ruxsora, the bride, is double veiled and bows slowly again and again as she is ushered to the ceremonial curtain.

Mukhsram, a Koranic celebrant, leads loud call-and-response prayers with the bride, Ruxsora, and female wedding guests. On her way to the ceremonial curtain, Ruxora is ushered with two loaves of 'lepy...

Behzod Boltaev, the groom, near his parents house, surrounded by his friends on his wedding day.

Behzod, the groom, carries his bride over his shoulder 200m to his house. Her feet must not touch the floor between leaving her family home and arriving at Behzod's home. Ruxora's aunt supports her du...

Behzod Boltaev, the groom, walks to a car to drive to the house of his bride, surrounded by his friends and musicians.

At a wedding, the unmarried men fight for a red cloth. Much like the significance of catching the bouquet in western weddings, the 'winner' of the red cloth signifies the next bachelor to be married.

Musicians, banging drums and blowing horns, led a procession of guests from the groom's house to the bride's house. Once they arrive at the bride's family house the music signifys that the wedding cer...

Male wedding guests, who seated together, chat over the breakfast meal of pilaf, 'lepyoshka' (local round bread), salads, pomegranate, cakes, vodka, and green tea.

Outside the bride's house, 20 young men shout and hold back Behzod, the groom. Behzod must push and fight his way to get inside and meet his bride.

Behzod, the groom, delivers plates of 'plov', a traditional pilaf rice dish, to the seated guests at his wedding.

An imam dresses Behzod, the groom, in a traditional black and gold robe and matching hat (tubeteika), gifts from the bride's family, and ties a Koran to his waist. This robing ritual is how Behzod bec...

Ruxsora, the bride, waits for Behzod, the groom behind a ceremonial curtain behind which she continues to slowly bow again and again.

Young boys dance while men wearing embroidered waistcoats sound a drum and blow two large horns outside the groom's house to signify the beginning of the wedding ceremony as the wedding guests and nei...

Ruxora, the bride, in a traditional Bukharian wedding dress and veil.

One of Ruxora's aunties lifts the bride's veil to kiss and bless her on her wedding day.

Bride, Ruxora, beneath a veil during a traditional Uzbek wedding ceremony.

A sacrificial goat is slaughtered in the courtyard of the groom's family home as the groom arrives carrying the bride on his shoulder.

A newly married couple have their photograph taken in Camlica Park with the skyline of Istanbul in the background.

A newly married bride in her wedding dress walks in Camlica Park where, on Sundays, just-married couples come to a hill that is the highest point in the city to take wedding photographs with the skyli...

Two veiled women take selfies while behind them a newly wed couple stand in a doorway.

A newlywed couple pose for a photo on a Beijing viaduct.

A band playing traditional instruments plays outside a flat in the stairway of an apartment block during celebrations for a marriage.

A newlywed couple who travelled to the 'Silent Cape' park from Moscow for a photo shoot. Natalya and her husband are originally from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, but have been living in Moscow for a while. The...

A pair of newlyweds posing for a photo shoot on Bagnoli beach.

A pair of newlyweds posing for a photo shoot on Bagnoli beach.

A newly married couple are driven from the service at Elne Cathedral in an old Citroen 2CV car.

Guest form a crowd around the bride and groom during the wedding (of an American woman, Eva, and a Frenchman, Olivier ) outside Elne Cathedral.

Elne Cathedral reflected on an old Citroen 2CV car.

A newly married couple stand on the Taranto sea walls beside the Monumento al Marinaio d'Italia, a sculpture that honours navy sailors by Di Cobertald.

Women at a community event in Hamadi Unare village protesting against female genital mutilation (FGM) and Child Marriage.

A roadside stall selling, among various items, dolls which dolls are being given on the occasion of a birth, a marriage or on religious holidays.

A large roadside stall selling, among various items, dolls which dolls are being given on the occasion of a birth, a marriage or on religious holidays.

Guests sit around a table enjoying a wedding breakfast that lasts from 8am to nnon.

A couple who have just become married leave Gibraltar through the airport. The only entrance road to Gibraltar runs over the landing strip.

Confetti flutters down around a newlywed couple as they embrace outside a church.

Aicha Ali (13), "I feel happy when I am together with my parents during a party, a marriage or a ceremony."

Newly married couple pose for their photos at the Mahamuni Pagoda.

Newly married couple pose for their photos at the Mahamuni Pagoda.

Newly married couple pose for their photos at the Mahamuni Pagoda.

Penny Palmer, a frontline accident and emergency nurse, holds a wedding picture of her father her father, a bus driver, died from COVID-19.

A woman carries some novelty balloons as she heads to a wedding held under the restrictions of the coronavirus lockdown.

Ren Xuemei (R) and Yan Hongyu (L), respectively Chief Marriage Counsellor and Event Organiser at Diamond Love, a high-end dating service.

A photograph of Akiko Ota's wedding in 1965. Akiko got married to her Korean husband in a shrine and wore traditional Korean dress.

An old photograph of Aiko Nakamoto (below left), her husband (1st from left) and her family taken just before she left Japan.

Wedding guests take part in an outside ceremony.

Wedding guests take part in an outside ceremony.

Two men embrace during a wedding reception in Lekki.

A group of male guests dance in unison at a wedding.

The bride and groom dance together at a wedding.

Staff working behind the scenes at a wedding reception in Lekki.

A member of staff moves fans behind the scenes of a wedding reception in Lekki.

A couple at their wedding reception in Lekki.

A man dressed for a wedding at a reception in Lekki.

Guests dancing at a wedding reception in Lekki, an up market district of Lagos.

Staff working behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of a wedding reception in Lekki, an up market district of Lagos.

Staff working behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of a wedding reception in Lekki, an up market district of Lagos.

A waitor serves champagne at a wedding reception in Lekki.

A waitor serves champagne at a wedding reception in Lekki.