IRAQ: Mixed marriages confront sectarian violence

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/017bde729a41deb9042b772f8cb15672.htm

BAGHDAD, 6 April (IRIN) - A feeling of familial affection is the first thing the visitor notices when entering the Baghdad home of Hadeel Zuhair, a 38-year-old Arab Sunni dentist. The mother of three is married to a 39-year-old Arab Shi'ite businessman from southern Iraq.

They are determined not to let the sectarian violence that has engulfed Iraq since the attack on the Shi'ite Askariya shrine in Samarra on 22 January tear their family apart. Immediately after the shrine attack, Shi'ite militants responded by attacking dozens of Sunni mosques.

"We've been married for six years and our sectarian differences have never affected us," said Hadeel. "For many years, we Iraqis viewed mixed marriages not as a problem but as an asset for uniting our country."

According to estimates, two million out of Iraq's 6.5 million marriages are unions between Arab Sunnis and Shi'ites. "In the beginning, my family was worried about our marriage," Hadeel explained. "But in the end, we convinced them that religious differences were not important enough to prevent a family from being built."

Add this to the list of ways we made life WORSE for Iraqis! :eyes: