Re-submitting:

Dear Arie1276:

You are an American woman (48 or 49). He is an Azerbaijan man (31 or 32) who moved to the U.S. in 2017 on a sports visa. You met him for the first time on April 1, 2022. After dating for two weeks, the two of you went through a private religious (Muslim) marriage ceremony, which in the U.S. has no legal implications. You planned on getting a marriage license in June 2022 and get legally married in Aug of the same year.

Original post, the morning of June 8, 2022: “Hello.  I need help with this one.  My fiancé is from another country.  We married through Islamic law called a Nikah. I am not Muslim nor did convert.  He is but isn’t religious. He came here on a sports visa 3 years ago. We plan on getting married in a few weeks to make it legal here in the U.S.”- you stated that (at least one of) the objective of the marriage was to make it legal for him to live and work in the U.S.

Azerbaijan is a country located between Eastern Europe and West Asia;  east of Turkey. It proclaimed its independence from the Soviet Union in Aug 30, 1991. Ninety seven percent (97%)  of the population are Cultural Muslims.

Wikipedia on Cultural Muslims and Azerbaijan: “Cultural Muslims are religiously non-practicing individuals who still identify with Islam due to family background… the term ‘cultural Muslim’ came into use to describe those who wished their ‘Muslim’ identity to be associated with certain national and ethnic rituals, rather than merely religious faith.. Azerbaijan is considered the most secular Muslim-majority country…  A Muslim is one born to a Muslim father who takes on his or her parents’ confessional identity without necessarily subscribing to the beliefs and practices associated with the faith…about 1% of the Muslims in Azerbaijan..  said that they attend mosque once a week or more… According to a 2009 Gallup Poll, Azerbaijan is one of the most irreligious countries in the Muslim world, with about  54% of respondents indicating the importance of religion in their life as little or none.”

Wikipedia/ Azerbaijani Americans: “According to the U.S. Census 2000 data, the Azerbaijanis who immigrated from Azerbaijan have settled primarily in New York (12,540),  New Jersey (4,357), Texas (3,178), California (2,743), and Minnesota (1,559).”

The night of your original post, June 8, you told him a few things: “The night before I expressed how I felt he was treating me and I had every right to be upset… and how he was putting me last and not a priority..  lash(ed) out at him“.

The day after, June 9, 2022,  “He packed all his stuff up and left me.. I tried calling and texting and I am blocked. He unfriended me on face book and changed his status to single… We were going to get married. He was so happy. He said I was his everything and his first real relationship… I don’t understand”.

On July 7, 2022, you reached out to him in the only place where he did not block you (Instagram messenger), and the two of you reconnected. He told you at that time, in his broken English: “You nice girl, a nice man, a nice person will come in your life… I’m sorry.  You have so nice life…. I’m sorry. I no can give you a good life I don’t want us to stay anymore together“. During that exchange he told you that he was no longer living in your city and state, but in a different state: Florida. In the same month the two of you continued to communicate and he told you that “He is now in Florida training for his MMA fights and working long hours doing Uber/Lyft“.

On Aug 19, 2022, he returned to your city and state and the two of you lived together once again: “He told me he came back for me.  He couldn’t stop thinking about me because had too many memories with me and no matter how hard he tried to forget me” . You got your marriage license on sept 6, 2022, and set a wedding dinner party for later that month.

Fast forward 4 months and he is still very busy with work and the gym, you are lonely and suspicious of women who may.. basically steal him away from you. I suggested that you stop spying on him, and in your recent post, you wrote: “I want to stop spying but when I get a gut feeling I go with it. I told him in the beginning not to do anything that would be suspicious… So how do I approach this?“-

– my answer: approach your spying on him as an addiction, an addiction that is fueled by your jealousy, jealousy that was established in your mind-and-heart before you ever met your husband. Think of the spying as an addiction that needs to be stopped. You can use the AA 12-steps, substituting “spying” for “alcohol”. Or some other program designed for addictions. What do you think?

* One more thing: as I read about his culture, I realized how super important hospitality is to his culture, and that gave me a different understanding (a way less suspicious understanding) of the woman-friend of his who greeted guests outside the restaurant during your wedding dinner party. There are other aspects of his culture that suggest new meaning to his behavior, a more positive meaning. It is amazing how important it  is to integrate cultural understanding when trying to understand a person.

anita