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Change Your Life! |
For whom the wedding bell tolls? |
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August 8, 2000
BAGHDAD (AP) - Nada Omran and Fathi Jabran chose to share one of the most important days in their lives with dozens of strangers. It was the only way the two government workers could afford to get married. With economic woes permeating every facet of life in Iraq because of U.N. trade sanctions, the government sponsors mass weddings as a way to put marriage in reach of Iraqis who might otherwise have to save for years to pay for white gowns, cakes and reception bands. "We have been waiting for this dream to come true for two years," said Omran, 26, holding Jabran's arm as the two stood in the Baghdad park after their recent mass wedding. "We do not want to think of what will happen after the honeymoon ... we will manage one way or another," said Jabran, 29. Iraq cannot trade with the rest of the world under sanctions imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Though an international coalition forced Iraq to retreat from Kuwait, the strict sanctions are being kept in place until U.N. inspectors certify that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction. Lack of trade is slowly strangling the economy. A decade ago, one Iraqi dinar bought more than dlrs 3. Today, it takes 2,000 dinars to buy dlrs 1. Civil servants on fixed salaries have been especially hard hit by inflation, slipping from middle class into poverty. It is not unusual to find university professors moonlighting as taxi drivers or doctors dealing in secondhand furniture. Families have lost their homes. Children are sent out to beg on street corners or take jobs sweeping up shops or washing dishes in restaurants. Many young Iraqi men - up to 2 million, by some estimates - have migrated abroad seeking work. The young women left behind find it hard to find someone to marry. The ones who do run into other difficulties. Furniture prices and apartment rents are so high it is almost impossible for a new couple to set up their own household. Some families take up collections among their relatives to cover wedding expenses. Fearing social problems could result from deferred marriages, the government of President Saddam Hussein began mass weddings in 1996, and has sponsored 454 since. Sponsors lend wedding gowns and suits and the government pays for cakes and hotel bills for a three-day honeymoon. Famous singers performed for free during the reception for Omran and Jabran's wedding. Newlyweds at the mass ceremony ranged in age from their 20s to 40. Smiling brides in borrowed gowns entered the park on the arms of their grooms to the notes of patriotic music. "We decided that the dowry would be a copy of the Koran. We do not want our wedding to be a heavy burden on our families," said Midhat Kadhim, 32, who married 27-year-old Zina Ibrahim that day. Baker Mahmoud Kadhim complains his wedding business has dropped by half since the Gulf War. "Newlyweds celebrate now without a cake and other festive items," he said. Yet there is opportunity in the problem, as the weekly magazine Nabdh al-Shabab discovered when it began running mate-wanted ads a year ago. The feature quickly became so popular that the space allotted for 10 ads a week is always full. Editors claim the ads, for which it charges 1,500 dinars, have resulted in 100 marriages. "Girl, 32 years old, nice looking, educated and in good financial situation looking for a man who respects his wife," one anonymous ad pleaded recently. "Does not matter how he looks nor where he lives. Ready to move with him where he desires. The only condition ... must be educated."
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