KABUL — Dozens of
Afghan women concealed in
thick green shawls were married off in an austere mass wedding in Kabul on
Monday, in a ceremony attended by hundreds of guests and gun-toting Taliban
fighters.
اضافة اعلان
Marriage is a costly affair in deeply
impoverished
Afghanistan, traditionally involving huge dowries, expensive gifts
and lavish parties.
Historically, couples from families unable
to foot the bill have sometimes opted to pool their resources in low-cost large
scale marriages.
Monday's ceremony hitching 70 couples was
one of the largest recently witnessed in Afghanistan, currently in economic
freefall since the return of the Taliban.
"Today, no young man wants to bear the
burden of an expensive wedding," said groom Ebadullah Niazai, who had
waited eight years to be married.
"I have no job. We were short of money
and so we decided to marry at a mass wedding ceremony," said 22 year-old
groom Esmatullah Bashardost, who hails from the minority
Shiite Hazara community.
Bashardost, sporting a traditional Afghan
cap, said his wedding would likely be the most "happy day" of his
life.
However celebrations were dramatically
dampened by frigid restrictions the Taliban have imposed on social life.
Before they seized power in August weddings
were riotously colorful affairs marked with singing, dancing, and some degree
of mingling between men and women in the deeply conservative nation.
On Monday the brides and grooms were kept
separate throughout the ceremony.
Guests of opposite sexes were separated by
around a dozen Taliban fighters patrolling with weapons, and the only
entertainment was poetry recitations and speeches by charity organizers of the
event.
Journalists were not allowed to speak to the
brides, who wore crisp white gowns under their concealing shawls, but were
permitted to photograph and film them.
A red and white wedding cake was produced
for each couple but was placed in front of the men only, who wore traditional
white shalwar kameez.
The event ended as grooms — each sporting a
plastic name badge — collected their brides and left the venue in cars
decorated with flowers and ribbons.
A single-day booking at a
Kabul wedding hall
costs between $10,000 and $20,000 and organizer Sayed Ahmad Selab said some
betrothed couples were "waiting for years" because of the expense.
During their first regime between 1996 and
2001 the Taliban barred showy weddings.
After surging back to power on the heels of
a hasty US withdrawal, the Islamists have yet to reinstate their previous ban
but they have forbidden musical entertainment.
Meanwhile, they have also issued creeping
restrictions on women, segregating them from men and rolling back marginal
gains they made over the past two decades.
In May women were told to stay at home as
much as possible and to conceal themselves completely, including their faces,
should they need to step out in public.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
