When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Geopolitics

Syria's Marriage Brokers: Matchmakers Of Love Or Wartime Traffickers?

In rural Idlib, marriage offices are fixing people up, but some say they're exploiting the lonely during wartime by selling desperate women to overseas men.

In Damascus
In Damascus
Younes Ahmad

IDLIB — In opposition-held areas of Syria, matchmaking offices specializing in marriage are becoming a popular alternative to wartime dating.

“Our work is governed by supply and demand,” says Khaled, an imam and the founder of the al-Aman marriage service in the northwestern Syria town of Idlib. “Young men and women seeking marriage register here, providing their age, required dowry amount, place of residence, religious sect and social status: single, widowed or divorced.”

Then Khaled and his staff identify a man or woman they think would be a good fit and introduce the two. If things go well, “We register the marriage at the sharia councils affiliated with local councils founded by the rebels.”

One Idlib imam says that marriages arranged this way are in accordance with Muslim law, assuming they fulfill a few conditions: that there is a proposal, consent to the proposal, the payment of a dowry, the presence of witnesses and a public announcement.

Despite meeting religious guidelines, Khaled says business was slow at first in a conservative rural society where marriage has long been governed by traditional parental matchmaking, including between cousins. “It took us a long time to convince people to resort to using these offices,” he says.

The foreign factor

There’s also been backlash from the locals. Musaab al-Sayyed, a 41-year-old lawyer, says Khaled and other matchmakers are exploiting the sacred institution of marriage for wartime financial gain.

“These people are merchants who trade in religion and in the dignity and honor of people,” adds Jamal, a 54-year-old resident. “I would never allow one of my sons or daughters to be married through these offices, even if that could mean that they go their entire lives without getting married.”

Khaled opened his doors nine months ago. Since then, he has arranged 23 marriages. He says the majority of these cases involved widowed and divorced women to men who have come from outside Syria, notably from Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He charges 2,000 Syrian pounds ($133) per person per match.

The perceived selling of Syrian women to foreign men is the major reason Khaled and his colleagues are seeing a backlash.

“These are overseas brokers who sell Syrian women to wealthy Arabs outside Syria,” says Mahmoud Suleiman, 36, an employee at a private-sector company in Idlib. “These bargains involve large sums of money.”

He says that local media outlets have reported about an organized network that runs and controls marriages of female Syrian refugees to people in many neighboring countries in return for commissions or fees — “under the pretext of shielding and protecting the Syrian girls,” Suleiman says.

But some support matchmaking as a valid substitute for traditional dating. Mahmoud, a 61-year-old army retiree, now works in a marriage office in nearby Binnish, in rural Idlib. “Our services prevent the outbreak of sin and adultery in society,” he says, adding that the matchmakers play a pivotal role in encouraging young people preoccupied by the war to get married — especially now that the number of marriages has declined due to the sheer number of men killed in battle.

Mohammad, 49, is a former employee of the Idlib Electricity Company and met his wife through a marriage office eight months ago.

“I studied the files of dozens of girls before selecting one,” he says. “Had the office not been there, my options would have been limited. The office also provided facilitation in registering the marriage at the sharia courts.”

His bride is a 32-year-old war widow. The two now live at his home in the Khan Sheikhoun area. “Everything is going well for us,” he says.

Hameed, 32, a taxi driver from rural al-Hamdyeh has been unable to find a suitable bride, so he contacted a matchmaking service four months ago and is still looking for the perfect wife.

“The majority of registered females are widows or divorced,” he says, “and I'm looking for a virgin. I'm beginning to despair of finding what I want, and I think I will soon return to traditions practiced in my village and marry one of my cousins.”

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Ideas

Populists With A Plan: Welcome To The Age Of Reactionism

Right-wing reaction to the globalized, liberal order is starting to look less dispersed and more systematic, like 20th-century political movements like socialism and communism.

Photo of Bolsonaro Supporters Storming Congress

Supporters of former Brazilian President Bolsonaro clash with mounted police in the capital.

Juan Gabriel Tokatlian

-Analysis-

BUENOS AIRES — In a 2018 text published in the International Studies Quarterly, academics Joseph MacKay and Christopher David La Roche asked why there was no "Reactionary International Theory." In December of that year, speaking with Crisis journal, I myself stressed that beyond Europe and the United States, international reactionism was taking root in Latin America. Then in 2019, "Reactionary Internationalism" and the philosophy of the New Right were the subjects of another paper by Pablo de Orellana and Nicholas Michelsen.

As an emergent trend, the "reactionary international" is worth considering.

This international is comparable in scope to 20th-century currents like the Communist International, Socialist International and Christian Democrat International. While those were prominent in Europe, the new reaction has emerged most emblematically in Anglo-American countries and remains a solidly Western phenomenon. Its expressions in peripheral countries, eastern Europe or Latin America have effectively adopted its mainstream proposals.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

The latest