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Gaza Bubbles with Weddings

(Economist-UK) In the crisp fourth floor office of Fahmi al-Atiri's Islamic dating agency in Gaza, he explains that polygamous marriages were increasingly popular - a sign of fertility and status. After all, Gaza's burly interior minister, he noted, had six wives, though in accordance with Islamic tenets he had had to let two of them go. For the sake of appearances, Atiri felt obliged to set a good example, though in a nod to gender equality had let his first wife select his second. Gaza's evenings now bubble with weddings. Open-topped trucks piled high with boys banging tambourines lead convoys of claxoning cars accompanying newlyweds through the streets. Restaurants have mushroomed in the city in recent months, but are frequently fully booked for celebrations.
2010-04-26 11:26:30
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