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The Prophet Noah ordered girls, wives and old women to cover their bodies with long, loose dresses, and their heads with head scarves, but left their faces open. “Türkmens’ faces reflect the light of Allah. For that reason sunlight, which is the torchlight of God, should fall on their faces and this should not be prevented.” Prophet Noah also advised repeatedly that men should not hit the faces of their children or wife. As for the woman’s mouth, he ordered them to cover it. This cover become the Türkmen traditional cover or yaşmak. Later he ordered the girls to cover their faces with the extensions of their dresses when they made eye contact with a man and to bite the extension when they heard ugly words.

Prophet Noah ordered the elders to be careful, patient and wise when educating children and placed on the shoulders of the elders the burden of bringing up children suitably equipped with the necessary skills for conditions in the real world. Prophet Noah wanted the youth to avoid making errors and not to be mistaken. He preached thus:

“If elders make a mistake once, their juniors make it a thousand times. If the father makes a mistake, the son makes a mistake; if the mother makes mistakes, the daughter makes mistakes; if the father-in-law and mother-in-law make a mistake, the bride makes a mistake.” For this reason he established the rules of good manners at home for TÜRK İMAN.  

“Do not be mean with emerald stones for your daughters and wives. Find them wherever they are and give them to the women. If one upsets his wife or daughter, he is not a TÜRK İMAN since they are very pleasant by nature, and their souls are pleasant too. Please them if you want to treat them well. Give them valuable pieces so that they may wear them on their breast, neck, and back. However, never harm their faces; the face itself is more valuable than thousands of emerald pieces. Allah’s love in people’s heart shows itself in people’s faces and enlightens the world. If you do this, they look better, satisfy your soul, and strengthen your spirit.” as Prophet Noah advised. He always said: “The decoration and beauty of the home are the daughters and the wives. A rose is beautiful in the garden; a wife, a daughter is beautiful in the home.”

The 10^th century historian Ibn-i Fadlan wrote about the Türkmen as follows: “The Türkmen people do not cover the faces of their women and girls like their neighbours. Their women are free. However, they do not know what it is to be unchaste. Türkmen women throughout history have lived without the slightest stain to their honour.”

The spring, which is colourful, effervescent, beautiful and full of fragrance, lasts for only two months. In the rest of the year, the steppe and the lands remain as yellow as grief. The clothes of the Türkmen girls and women, which are bright, light green, red, pink and violet, continue the short spring season throughout the year. Türkmens have always woven perfect fabrics, like linen, broadcloth, the red caftan, and robes. Even the developed weaving industry of the twentieth century has not persuaded Türkmens to abandon their traditional clothes.

If newly-weds do not treat each other with respect from the first day of their marriage, but always do harm to one another and damage their reputation, then in-laws will not respect them for long. Then their relatives and neighbours will not respect them either. In this case, one or other of the pair starts struggling for survival day and night, and the two of them fight with one another and the relatives and neighbours. Gorkut Ata wished that one might be protected by Allah against the evils of a bad spouse. Yet Allah will not protect one from a bad spouse because, “even a monster would flee from such a spouse,” as they say.

It is the husband’s and his relatives’ duty to help the new bride to get used to the habits and behaviour of the family.

The Türkmen have a beautiful tradition; a new bride bows her head to her father-in-law and mother-in-law, then the daughters in the house take her to the neighbours’ and relatives’ houses. The bride greets them in the same way. She shows respect to her new relatives by complying with this wise Türkmen tradition. This amounts to saying that if you have respect for your husband, then you should also show respect to his family. That is how relationships are grounded on the foundation of respect. May this respect and affection turn into a great love and friendship as time passes. May the new bride be the most beloved and beautiful bride of the family and the neighbourhood. This depends on how the men act in this regard.

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