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Celebrate until the police arrive – Arab weddings in Corona Times
| Reading time: 4 minutes
Exuberant feast: Palestinian wedding feast in the West Bank on September 24, 2020
Source: AP / Majdi Mohammed
The large wedding celebrations in the Arab world continue to become popular events. However, many couples do not want to be excluded from the luxurious party. The authorities are now more rigorous.
reThe party atmosphere was lively: many danced to live traditional music, others clapped and cheered. Then the police rushed in. The officials expelled the guests, imposed heavy fines and arrested the groom and some singers. The long-awaited wedding celebrations in the Arab world have ended so abruptly for several weeks. Because due to the increasing number of corona infections, the police are cracking down on larger gatherings.
Many couples stick to their marriage plans despite the crown risk. After all, marriage is an important pillar of society here: the key to independence and the only culturally accepted context for a sex life. From the Palestinian Territories to the United Arab Emirates, authorities attribute an increase in Covid-19 cases to large traditional weddings that do not comply with public protection measures.
In Jenin, in the northern West Bank, Mustafa Khatib and six members of his band recently spent two nights in prison after performing at a large wedding party. The police fined the musicians the equivalent of just under 9,500 euros. Another singer, Mohammed Abu al Naji, was released on one condition: that he stop singing until the end of the pandemic.
“There were about 500 people at the party, without any protection,” he recalls his appearance. She did not feel at home there, but she could not refuse the engagement for financial reasons.
Palestinian authorities broke up dozens of festivals, said police spokesman Loaie Irsekat. But fines, arrests and infections don’t stop determined couples from marrying and partying with hundreds of guests. “You’re planning a small wedding, but then all the family and friends show up,” explains Kassim Najjar, whose wedding ceremony in the northern West Bank village of Deir Sharaf was recently completed by police. “That is our tradition.”
In Arab families like yours, large and lavish wedding celebrations highlight social status. The celebrations are also important for the newlyweds because of the monetary gifts they receive here and with which they build the common home.
For Palestinians, the ritual also has a deeper meaning, as sociologist Randa Serhan of the American University of Beirut explains. “It’s an existential thing,” she says, referring to the life of Palestinians under Israeli occupation or in exile. “When the Palestinians stop marrying and procreating, they will cease to exist. They don’t have their own land, but they have family. “
But right now the celebrations can have deadly consequences. The Palestinian Ministry of Health linked more than 80 percent of new crown infections to large crowds at weddings and funerals. In the wedding halls of conservative cities like Hebron, a particularly high number of people were infected. The number of corona cases is currently increasing to record levels. The Palestinian Authority reported more than 34,500 cases in the West Bank and 270 deaths.
Also in Israel, which is battling one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks per capita in the world, authorities blame large wedding celebrations in Arab cities as primarily responsible for spreading the virus. In addition to the ultra-Orthodox enclaves, which are also known for their grand weddings and group prayers, Arab communities are one of the hardest hit by Corona.
Arab-Israeli MP Ahmad Tibi told the AP that the infection rate in Arab areas increased from around 3 percent to 30 percent during the summer marriage season. Israeli citizens are disillusioned after the first failed shutdown and are now increasingly ignoring government guidelines.
In Egypt, the wedding halls were closed in the spring. Those who could afford it moved their party to a private villa, while others celebrated on the street. Since the crown numbers have declined, the parties can now take place again in certified hotels and outdoors.
In the United Arab Emirates, the daily rate of infection peaked at four months. The Health Ministry blames major events such as weddings and funerals for nearly 90 percent of new cases. The government is now increasingly cracking down on prohibited parties, arresting hosts and guests and imposing fines.
The sleepy northern emirate of Ras al Khaimah, on the other hand, has become an unregulated party hub. While luxurious Dubai has banned wedding celebrations, wedding halls have been reopened for hundreds of guests and restrictions have been relaxed in little-known Ras al Khaimah.
Some Arab couples, however, forgo tradition and adhere to health requirements instead. Baraa Amarneh and Imad Scharaf, for example, were married during the lockdown in the Palestinian territories a few months ago in Hebron under crown conditions: they wore latex gloves when they said yes, and 25-year-old bride Amarneh’s professional makeup was on. much of it hidden behind a mask. . Few family members attended the ceremony.
Amarneh says he will do it all over again; “Without all the neighbors and friends, what a married couple does is what remains: two people.”
