Re: marriages to non-pakistanis
My hubby is Greek and lucky for me he has travelled and worked all over the world so he was totally up for the cultural aspects when we had our nikah, very happily wore a shirvani etc. Now we're planning our wedding this year. I think it suited him really well to find a foreign wife because he always liked to break the rules, ha ha! His family are really nice people, no problems. I think my MIL would have preferred me to be Greek, but then my Dad would have preferred I married a pakistani so hey ho! We get along very well too, which I hear is unusual.
Hubby did try to convince me to wear a white wedding gown for the wedding but I was like you wear what you want, i have a culture too you know! NOw we're having fun picking beautiful, colourful ethnic wedding cards instead of the white and cream stuff (no offence, but desi weddings rock in terms of colours!!). I think he likes to provoke the elders he knows when they ask "When are you two getting married" by saying we're already married, we had a muslim marriage. Maybe they gossip about it later but it annoys him that he doesn't manage to irritate them there and then, them being strict Christians!
Basically Greeks are like Pakistanis and a bit suspicious of 'outsiders' especially the older generation. Younger people don't really care and think it's kinda cool.
I'm at an intermediate level speaking Greek now, hubby speaks no Urdu apart from 'bas', ha ha! I plan on teaching my kids english, urdu, Greek and my tutti phutti punjabi. Inshallah they're going to grow up with open minds and a greater appreciation of the two great cultures their parents come from.