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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Iraq's new million-strong army of single women

Iraq, whose once fourth largest army in the world had been demobilized by the US occupation authorities, has now a new million-strong army -- but of spinsters.


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Iraq, whose once fourth largest army in the world had been demobilized by the US occupation authorities, has now a new million-strong army -- but of spinsters.

According to unofficial statistics, Iraq has 106 females to every 100 males and the number of unmarried women between 20 to 40 years old has surpassed a million.

Azhar, 39, was one of the members of the new army and got married only last year.

Although she holds a university degree and has a good job as a teacher, Azhar had to settle for marrying 40-year-old Mahmoud who finished only a primary education and works as a taxi driver.

"Had I refused Mahmoud," she said, "I would have been still lonely like many of my friends."

Taking a lesson from so many unmarried girls, Fatima, 30, agreed to be a second wife of a married man only, as she said, "to avoid being a member of the new army."

According to local sociologists, the main reason for this serious problem is the three devastating wars in the past two decades, during which more than half a million young men became cannon fodder.

From 1980 to 1988, Iraq was engaged in a bloody and prolonged war with its eastern neighbor -- Iran.

Only two years later, Iraq plunged into another crisis after former President Saddam Hussein ordered his army to occupy the oil-rich Kuwait. The United States led an international coalition to force Iraq out of its southern neighbor in the 1990 Gulf War.

Again in 2003, a war was launched by US-led coalition forces to topple Saddam's regime as part of the United States' ongoing crackdown on global terrorism.

Islam, the religion of more than 90 percent of the 25 million Iraqi people, permits polygamy. A Muslim has the right, under certain conditions, to have up to four wives.

But under pressure from Iraqi and Arab feminist movements, and in keeping with UN human rights standards, the right of polygamy has been restricted by Iraqi civil rights code.

Meanwhile, the skyrocketing consumer prices, as a result of the decade-long tough UN sanctions that had impoverished more than 60 percent of the Iraqis, has made marriage for thousands of Iraqi young people a dream.

Moreover, a shortage in housing facilities has also become a bigobstacle for the holy matrimonies. Statistics showed that Iraq is currently in need of 1.5 million housing units to provide hygienic housing to all its population.

According to Iraqi traditions, a groom should pay his bride an amount of money in cash called "muqadam," or advance payment, before marriage to cover the costs of furniture, cloth and a certain quantity of gold.

He is also asked to pledge himself to pay her a larger amount of "mutakhir," or late payment. Both amounts are registered in the marriage contract.

These amounts, which fluctuate from case to case, jumped in the past two decades from a few hundred dinars to millions at present, and thus became unaffordable for thousands of the impoverished young Iraqis.

In 1990, the average advance payment was between 100 dinars and 500 dinars, equivalent to about 300 US dollars to 1,500 dollars at that time.

Now, even as Iraq is experiencing hard economic conditions, the average amount has reach one million dinars to five million dinars,equivalent to about 500 dollars to 2,500 dollars under current exchange rates.

Most brides also want a separate house to live with her would-behusband, in a time when the cost of a simple apartment is as twice as that two decades ago while the average salary has shrunk to one fifth as much.

All these developments have further restricted the desire of young men to marry. According to official figures published in 1998, only 7,500 marriage contracts were registered in the year while 7,800 divorce cases were recorded.

One of the serious consequences of the growing army of spinsters is wide-spread prostitution, which has led to spread of venereal diseases such as gonorrhea and syphilis and even some cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Another consequence is a big drop in population growth, from 3.3percent annually in late 1970s to an estimated two percent at present.

In an attempt to tackle this problem, Saddam used to offer bounty inducements including a free apartment to any man who prepared to marry a widow whose husband had been killed in war.

Saddam also patronized group marriage ceremonies of young couples by making disbursements from the state fund to cover costs of wedding gowns, ceremonies, and one night in a five-star hotel for the couples.

However, observers believe that these measures had been a mere superficial solution to a serious problem whose impact is felt all over the war-torn nation.




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