The party was loud: classical music playing, families clapping, crowds of dancing revelers. Then the police broke in. The agents expelled the guests, imposed heavy fines, even locked up the groom and singers in tuxedo.
In recent weeks, such unfortunate endings in long-awaited marriages have a non-unusual history in the Arab world, as the resurgence of coronavirus cases triggers deceptive police action.
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However, in a region where marriage is the cornerstone of society, the door to independence and the only culturally appropriate context for a sex life, couples are advancing, despite the fatal risks. From the Palestinian territories to the United Arab Emirates, officials characterize a build-up of virus cases to large-scale classical marriages that circumvent public fitness measures.
In Jenin, northern West Bank, Mustafa Khatib and six members of his organization spent two nights in prison for attending a busy wedding this month. Police fined the organization $11,000.
“It’s not fair,” Khatib. La will never avoid getting married and will never avoid throwing parties. “Mohammed Abu al-Naji, another singer, was only released after committing to avoid making a song until the end of the pandemic.
“There were about 500 more people at the party, without any protection,” al-Naji recalls. “I wasn’t satisfied with being at a wedding like this, but I had to do it” to make it to the end of the month,” he said.
The Palestinian government has ended dozens of ceremonies, police spokesman Loaie Irzekat said. However, the wave of fines, arrests and infections has not prevented our partners from deciding to be tied up, surrounded by lots of friends.
“You plan to have a small wedding, but then all your relatives and friends show up,” said Qasim Najjar, whose wedding party last weekend in the village of Deir Sharaf in the northern West Bank was scattered across the police. “It’s our custom. “
For Arab families, lax and luxurious marriages mark social status. For newlyweds, the tradition of accepting envelopes full of cash helps them settle down. For Palestinians, the ritual can be even deeper.
“It’s an existential thing,” said Randa Serhan, a political sociologist at the American University of Beirut, referring to Palestinians living under the Israeli profession or in exile. “If the Palestinians prevent them from getting married and procreated, they will cease to exist. They have a nation, but they have a family. “
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The celebrations of life have potentially fatal consequences. The head of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Ali Abed Rabu, has linked more than 80% of new coronavirus infections to giant meetings at weddings and funerals. Wedding halls in internal conservative cities like Hebron have vectors of contagion. Coronavirus cases are now reaching new heights. The Palestinian Authority reported more than 34,500 cases in the West Bank and 270 deaths.
A Palestinian groom is thrown into the air at a wedding party in Azmut, near the West Bank town of Nablus, September 24, 2020 (AP)
Newlyweds are surrounded by their friends as they celebrate a curfew imposed as a prevention measure against the coronavirus pandemic in Cairo, Egypt (File Photo: AP).