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ABC News' Terry McCarthy has been reporting on war, peace, and everything in between from all around the world for 20 years. He writes about daily life in the areas he is reporting from.
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Baghdad's Montagues and Capulets
November 27, 2007 5:27 PM
We spent some time yesterday with Luay Rudha, a 31 year-old plumber, and his new bride, Eman Jabbar, 30. I am not given to sappy metaphors, but their story seemed uncannily like an Iraqi version of Romeo and Juliet.
Luay is Shiite, Eman is Sunni. They both lived in Amil district in western Baghdad, a mixed neighborhood which became one of the most dangerous parts of the city when the militias from both sides started killing civilians in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign.
Eman is a teacher, and Luay used to see her every morning when she walked to school. It took him some months to even find out what her name was. He tried to send her notes and even call her, but for almost a year she resisted. But when he refused to give up she began talking to him on the phone, then let him drive her to and from work – a 5 minute drive – and ultimately would go out on dates with him to the local coffee shop.
Her family is very conservative, and they were dead set against the couple marrying. Eman was careful to say that the initial resistance was not so much because Luay was Shiite, but because he was a stranger to them, and they had intended her to marry a man from their extended clan. But then Baghdad’s noxious sectarianism further complicated their lives, when Eman’s brother was killed by Shiite militiamen. That set her entire family against her marrying a Shiite.
With violence out of control in their neighborhood, the US military put up concrete walls separating the Sunni and Shiite areas – it seemed like everything was conspiring against them.
Luay was still not deterred – and by now Eman, who was convinced of Luay’s devotion, was equally determined to overcome her family’s opposition. In August of this year, as violence finally seemed to be decreasing, the “star cross’d lovers announced their engagement. To their delight and surprise, her family and neighbors were all supportive – the Sunni-Shiite marriage seemed to suggest that the terrible rift that had opened up in Iraqi society was finally on the mend. Sure enough the killings continued to go down.
Their wedding was on October 18th.
As it happens, the US military is now taking down the walls they put up earlier this year. Luay says it is no coincidence. “We proved that Shiite are still marrying Sunnis and Sunnis are still marrying Shiites. This has broken the walls between the two sects in our neighborhood.”
November 27, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0)
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