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A wedding's irresistible momentum
Displaced by Islamic militants and short on food, refugees in Lebanon find a way to wed.
By Carol Huangfrom the August 6, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 2
Nothing like a band of Islamic militants to throw a wrench in one's wedding plans. Just ask Taha Hussein and Fatima Shtiwi. They'd been engaged for six years and had already prepared their new home in Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp on Lebanon's northern coast. But then May clashes between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam militants in their camp forced them to flee – along with 31,000 Palestinians.
Yet nothing could put a stop to the momentum of their marriage. Last Thursday, their families – now resettled in makeshift circumstances – held the wedding anyway. Two, actually: Taha's brother, Wasim, was also married in a joint ceremony.
The brides' rented gowns flounced and swished as they moved, Cinderella-like poofs of white satin, tulle, embroidery, and beading, with decorated veils to match. Their grooms looked plain in comparison, with short-sleeved collared shirts and ties. For some guests, it was their first change of clothes since fleeing Nahr al-Bared. It was also a welcome shift in atmosphere.
"It's nice to have a wedding," muses Ziad Shtiwi, a relative of the bride and groom. "It's a change in the mood."
Several Nahr el-Bared couples have wed since losing their homes and possessions, says Caoimhe Butterly, a relief worker at the Beddawi refugee camp where Mr. Hussein's family now lives in a school. Some even have a few days' honeymoon in their own "room" – a corner of a classroom sectioned off by blue plastic tarp – before family members, often numbering in the double-digits, move back in.
The Shtiwi-Hussein clan is fortunate in that the bride's family can afford to rent two apartments outside the camp, in the nearby village of Deir Ammar – one for the newlyweds.
Of the 26,651 Nahr el-Bared refugees who have stayed in north Lebanon, two-thirds took shelter in Beddawi, says Bassem Chit, project coordinator for a relief data-collection group, Lebanon Support. About 4,095 of them are living in schools or other collective centers; another 12,791 found host families in the camp. Together they have more than doubled the population of Beddawi, causing severe overcrowding.
Aid groups and international donors brought an initial stream of relief items this spring, including 33,000 food parcels, 26,000 mattresses, and $1,300 in cash per family.
But in the past two weeks those provisions have virtually stopped coming, says Ms. Butterly. Unemployment is rising, too, since refugees fear Lebanese soldiers on the lookout for Fatah el-Islam militants will harass or detain them – or worse – if they leave the camp to look for work.
