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Masters student marries herself to fend off parents’ pressure – PHOTOS


A Ugandan student staged a mock wedding during her 32nd birthday after what she termed as immense pressure by parents.

Lulu Jemimah, a masters student at Oxford University, invited her family and friends to what was meant to be a birthday celebration but she turned up in a wedding gown.

The creative writing student hired a gown in which she came to the venue and walked to the front as her audience watched in dismay.

NOT KEEN ON ‘GROOM’

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She then gave a speech that her studies had taken over her life and that she was not keen on getting a groom anytime soon hence her decision to wed herself.

“I have a strong passion in life and I am committed to achieving my goals at becoming an academic. But all my family wanted to ask me was when I planned to get married – which is very important back in Uganda – followed by when I would be having children and starting a family.

“My father wrote my wedding speech when I turned 16. Every birthday my mother prayed for me and in recent years this has included a plea for a good husband,” she said.

Jemimah who was in Uganda for her birthday had planned a low key celebration until her friends convinced her to settle the marriage issue in a mock wedding.

VOWED TO HERSELF

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One of her friends acted as an officiating pastor as she vowed to herself and her studies in the presence of 30 guests.

“Marriage is an expression of love and commitment, however for many people back home, it is still considered the only way to guarantee a woman’s financial security. I had worried about coming off as stupid but to have such a strong intellectual group of friends behind the idea, that was all the validation I needed for the choices I have made,” she said.