By Sobhi Haddad, IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, August 27 (IslamOnline.net) - Grappling with lack of basic services, lamentable security situation and foreign occupation, Iraqis find marriage and several-day weddings a history.

"Ammar had wanted to marry his colleague at the technical institute in which they were studying, but current conditions turned all of his plans going badly awry," Samia Al-Malki told of her 22-year-old son's dilemma.

Al-Malki finds it enough for her family to rather concentrate on just one thing - how to make ends meet in a country endowed with the world's second reserves.

"I lost my job in the Iraqi News Agency, and my husband turned jobless after he was fired from the Oil Ministry for being a former member of the Baath Party," the grieving lady said.

Further to distance Iraqis from marriage, the country was inflicted with cascading outrage and all-night curfews that restricted movement of local inhabitants.

"I worked hard to prepare myself for marriage before the fall of Baghdad, but I did not manage to do this until I borrowed 800,000 dinars (a dinar = 1,5000 dollars) for my two and a half million dinars' wedding expenses," said Hassan Saleh Al-Mashhadani, 34.

However, Hassan did not manage to buy a new furniture for his house, depending on second-hand furniture.

"I had expected that the situation would improve after the fall of the Saddam regime and the entry of Americans," said Al-Mashhadani.

But it did not, with large scenes of chaos, anarchy and lack of security plunging the country into a crisis.

"The situation rather slided into the worst," he contended echoing the broader view among local inhabitants.

Iraqis hate Saddam, but they are loathe to be under occupation, which they say only left them suffering under more tough conditions.

Because of security concerns, Al-Mashhadani managed only to invite 200 people of my family to his wedding ceremony which was held on the light of lanterns and with the use of palm-made traditional fans.

The first night of marriage was rather harder for the newlywed.

"We spent the whole night covered in sweat, with a searing temperature exceeding 50 Celsius," the grieving husband said.

Saving money for five years, Hagar Kamal, a Kurdish citizen, said he held his wedding ceremony on his house's rooftop, because of lack of security especially when the darkness falls.