On Thursday, October 6, 115 couples from Balkh, Bamyan, Ghazni and Saripol provinces started their lives together in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
“This initiative is aimed at confronting the culture of extravagance that has made it difficult to start a family,” says Razia Hossaini, deputy director of Darul Uloom Hosinia, which organized the event. Because so many couples participated, the cost to celebrate the beginning of their lives together was 35,000 afghanis (US$400) per couple. Hossaini says that her organization used some of those funds to provide household items and accessories to the newlyweds.
Mohammad Reza, one of the grooms in the mass marriage ceremony, says that he and his fiancée had been unable to afford to get married due to the worsening economy. “My job is repairing cars. After the Taliban came to power, my income decreased. I couldn’t earn enough to cover the cost of marriage,” he explains, noting that the group wedding solved that problem.
The bad economic situation in Afghanistan is preventing many young people from starting a family, Reza says. Rising food costs coupled with skyrocketing unemployment mean many families are selling household goods to get by. In addition, the Taliban’s restrictions on women, and its ban on women’s employment, have added to the worsening situation for many households, meaning there’s little additional money for marriage ceremonies
