Sectarian strife makes love difficult in Iraq.
The problem of inter-communal marriages is largely new in Iraq, where the community one belonged to was previously of little importance in the quest for a spouse. Executed dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime comprised a Sunni Arab elite but was largely secular.
“The situation deteriorated after the fall of the former regime and the sectarian violence that followed.”
Sociologist Suha al-Shamaa, who also works in the women’s section at the human rights ministry, said: “Before the U.S. occupation of 2003, the question of which community a woman belonged to was not asked. Today it’s essential.”
….As many as 41.5 percent of Iraqi men and women over 12 years old are single, the WFP says, and 4.2 percent are widowed.
