カブールで集団結婚式 終始隔離の新郎新婦７０組

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】アフガニスタンの首都カブールで今週、集団結婚式が行われ、新婦７０人は純白のドレスの上に緑色の厚いショールをかぶって参加した。簡素な結婚式では数百人の参列客に交じって、銃を携行したイスラム主義組織タリバンの戦闘員の姿も見られた。（写真はカブールで行われた集団結婚式の開会を待つ新婦）
　アフガニスタンでは、結婚式は経済的に負担の大きいイベントで、多額の結婚持参金や高価な贈り物、盛大なパーティーが伝統とされる。
　こうした費用を捻出できない場合は通常、いくつかのカップルが共同で資金をためて、安く抑えられる集団結婚式を選ぶ。
　１３日の式では７０組のカップルが夫婦となった。昨年８月のタリバンの復権以降、急激に経済が悪化した同国では、ここ最近で最大規模の結婚式だ。
　結婚まで８年待ったという新郎のエバドゥラ・ニアザイさんは、「近頃では、結婚式にかかる高い費用を自分で払いたがる若い男性はいません」と語った。
　式を挙げるにしても、タリバンが市民生活に課している厳格な規制のために、祝いのムードは大幅にそがれている。
　タリバン復権以前の結婚式は、歌や踊りで華やぎ、保守的なこの国において男女がいくらか交流できる場でもあった。
　だがこの日の結婚式では新婦と新郎、そして参列者も、会場を巡回するタリバン戦闘員によって終始、隔てられていた。唯一の余興は、詩の朗読と式の主催者である慈善団体の演説だった。
　報道関係者は新婦に話し掛けることを禁じられた。だが、新婦の撮影は許可された。
　この間、タリバン政権は女性に対する規制を徐々に強めている。男性から隔離し、過去２０年間に女性が獲得したわずかな進歩を後退させている。
　先月、タリバンは女性に対し、できる限り自宅で過ごすべきとの方針を示し、公共の場でのブルカ（全身を覆う衣服）着用を義務付けた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/06/20-13:24）

Dozens of Afghan women concealed in thick green shawls were married off in an austere mass wedding in Kabul on Monday, in a ceremony attended by hundreds of guests and gun-toting Taliban fighters.
Marriage is a costly affair in deeply impoverished Afghanistan, traditionally involving huge dowries, expensive gifts and lavish parties.
Historically, couples from families unable to foot the bill have sometimes opted to pool their resources in low-cost large scale marriages.
Monday's ceremony hitching 70 couples was one of the largest recently witnessed in Afghanistan, currently in economic freefall since the return of the Taliban.
Today, no young man wants to bear the burden of an expensive wedding, said groom Ebadullah Niazai, who had waited eight years to be married.
I have no job. We were short of money and so we decided to marry at a mass wedding ceremony, said 22 year-old groom Esmatullah Bashardost, who hails from the minority Shiite Hazara community.
Bashardost, sporting a traditional Afghan cap, said his wedding would likely be the most happy day of his life.
However celebrations were dramatically dampened by frigid restrictions the Taliban have imposed on social life.
Before they seized power in August weddings were riotously colourful affairs marked with singing, dancing, and some degree of mingling between men and women in the deeply conservative nation.
On Monday the brides and grooms were kept separate throughout the ceremony.
Guests of opposite sexes were separated by around a dozen Taliban fighters patrolling with weapons, and the only entertainment was poetry recitations and speeches by charity organisers of the event.
Journalists were not allowed to speak to the brides, who wore crisp white gowns under their concealing shawls, but were permitted to photograph and film them.
A red and white wedding cake was produced for each couple, but was placed in front of the men only, who wore traditional white shalwar kameez.
The event ended as grooms -- each sporting a plastic name badge -- collected their brides and left the venue in cars decorated with flowers and ribbons.
A single day booking at a Kabul wedding hall costs between $10,000 and $20,000 and organiser Sayed Ahmad Selab said some betrothed couples were waiting for years because of the expense.
During their first regime between 1996 and 2001 the Taliban barred showy weddings.
After surging back to power on the heels of a hasty US withdrawal, the Islamists have yet to reinstate their previous ban but they have forbidden musical entertainment.
Meanwhile, they have also issued creeping restrictions on women, segregating them from men and rolling back marginal gains they made over the past two decades.
In May women were told to stay at home as much as possible and to conceal themselves completely, including their faces, should they need to step out in public.