Ten days of celebrations later, a ritual puts an end to the wedding of Prince Mateen of Brunei

The wedding of Prince Abdul Mateen of Brunei, an Instagram star for the photos of his glamorous life, and his compatriot Anisha Rosah ended this Tuesday with an elaborate Muslim ritual after ten days of celebrations in the sultanate.

The ceremony included the recital of religious texts and ablutions by attendees, including Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and other royals, at the small, wealthy sultanate’s imposing Istana Nurul Iman palace, which has vast oil and gas fields.

During the ritual, 21 cannon shots were also fired to commemorate the union of the princes, according to the newspaper ‘Borneo Bulletin’.

The attractive couple offers an air of modernity in the traditional atmosphere of the sultanate, something that can be seen in the photos that Prince Mateen shares on Instagram, where he has 2.5 million followers, more than the population of the country (445,000 inhabitants ).

Thus, the young man appears in photos wearing elegant suits with the Eiffel Tower in the background, playing polo, flying in a fighter plane and even showing off abs.

The wedding ceremonies between Prince Mateen, the tenth of the Sultan’s 12 sons and daughters and the fourth among men, and Anisha Rosnah began on January 7.

‘Star’ on Instagram

In the small sultanate of Brunei, rich for its oil reserves, the wedding has dragged on for days.

Among the many celebratory events, the sumptuous royal reception for the wedding between Prince Abdul Mateen, known for his athletic profile and 2.5 million followers on Instagram, and the young Bruneian Anisha Rosnah.

That day, thousands of citizens greeted the bride and groom in the streets who paraded in a Rolls-Royce vehicle before arriving at the luxurious Istana Nuraul Iman palace, where the wedding banquet took place.

The evening was attended by the Sultan and Mateen’s father, Hassanal Bolkiah, as well as royals from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Bhutan, as well as Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, among others. .

The couple

They announced their engagement last October, sparking interest in the bride, who is the granddaughter of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah’s special advisor, Pehin Dato Isa, and studied at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, according to the magazine. “Squire”.

It has also emerged that the princess, who does not belong to the nobility, has started a couple of businesses, one in fashion under the brand Silk Collective and a travel agency.

Prince Mateen, for his part, is the fourth child of the sultan’s second wife, Hajah Mariam, whom he divorced in 2003, and studied International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London.

In his military training, he graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and then learned to fly helicopters in the Royal Air Force at Cranwell in the United Kingdom.

Although Mateen is not the heir to the throne, he often accompanies his father to high-level events as an advisor, including Japan’s summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN, of which Brunei is a member) last year. December in Tokyo, or that of ASEAN itself in Jakarta in September, as their photos on Instagram attest.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who has been married twice and divorced twice, has led this conservative Islamic nation under the form of an absolute monarchy since 1967 and was appointed prime minister in 1984 after its independence from the United Kingdom.

This small sultanate, which boasts some of the highest GDP per capita in the world thanks to oil, is located on the island of Borneo, which it shares with its neighbors Indonesia and Malaysia.

Image of modernity

The attractive couple offers an air of modernity in the traditional atmosphere of the sultanate, something that can be seen in the photos that Prince Mateen shares on Instagram.

Thus, the young man appears in photos wearing elegant suits with the Eiffel Tower in the background, playing polo, flying in a fighter plane and even shirtless showing off abs.

Most of the comments are positive but also uncomfortable, such as one Internet user who comments on a photo in which Anisha Rosnah is not wearing a veil: “So Bruneian royals don’t have to wear a hijab?”

One of the users responds that, although Brunei is conservative, there is no law that requires women to wear a hijab or Islamic veil. With EFE

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