The roof of one house often serves as the courtyard for another upper house. Within Avar society, the division of labor remains distinct but does show some signs of change. The men do the heavier work, such as house building, plowing, threshing, transporting the harvest, and maintenance, while all domestic work is done by the women. The formal right to divorce traditionally belonged to the husband, but now the marriage can be dissolved by either partner. The traditional clothing of the Avar is similar to that of other European groups and includes a felt cloak and quilted coat.
Women wear special headdresses called chikhtas .
Today, especially in Azerbaijan, most people wear ordinary Western-style clothes. The Avar language is composed of five main dialects that are not mutually intelligible. Several attempts have been made to compile an Avar script based first on Arabic, then Roman, and then Cyrillic. Today, there is a well-developed literature available in a literary language called Bolmata , which is based on the northern dialect. Sunni Islam has been the prevailing religion of the Avar since the thirteenth century.