BAGHDAD,
July 10, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Against a backdrop of towering
unemployment rates and appalling living conditions under the US-led
occupation, Sunni bodies and charities are championing a matrimonial
service to help youth tie the knot.
The
Sunni Waqfs, one of the leading Sunni bodies in Iraq, in association
with Al-Afaf (modesty) charity have allocated 750,000 dinars ($500)
for each of a total of 500 couples, who once feared that having a
family had become a far-fetched dream in occupied Iraq.
"We
just wanted to bring a smile to the faces of desperate Iraqis and give
them hope that a new Iraq is on the horizon," Waqfs chairman
Adnan Al-Delemi told a ceremony held in Abu Hanifa mosque in
Al-Adhamiya district of Baghdad, celebrating the ambitious and
successful project.
"It
started with granting 100 youths money to help them get married and
now we have 500 couples whose dreams have finally come true," he
added enthusiastically.
Delimi
said that 500 more couples will be married on Rajab 27 on the occasion
of Al-Israa’ and Al-Mi`raj [the night journey from Makkah to Al-Quds
and the ascent to the Heavens by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)].
The
ceremony also saw generous donations from benevolent Iraqis amounting
to some 1.4 million dinars.
Delimi
further thanked Iraqi President Jalal Talabani for supporting the
matrimonial service with $100,000.
Other
Woes
After
US-backed successive sweeps that mainly targeted Sunni areas and wiped
off smiles of people’s faces, Delimi said they will further help
widows, orphans and handicapped Iraqis.
He
added that one and a half million dinars ($1000) will be earmarked to
each widow when getting married again.
Many
Iraqi widows and wives of prisoners and unemployed Iraqis have been
forced to seek inferior jobs, like housemaids, to make ends meet.
With
doctors putting the number of Iraqis, including children, maimed by
random US raids at thousands, the Sunni Waqfs has spent so far some
350 million dinars ($225,000) in an effort to rehabilitate and ease
the sufferings of the handicapped.
Iraqi
mosques and charity organizations have also been channeling Zakah money
into productive projects to help provide for the poor and generate
jobs for the unemployed, in line with fatwas allowing the practice.
As
unemployment hit the scary mark of 65% according to unofficial
statistics, job opportunities have become the overriding concern of
many Iraqis.
