Kabul (AFP) - With a burst of confetti, dancers clap and twirl around a garland-bedecked groom as Afghanistan's wedding season kicks into high gear, but lawmakers pushing for austerity are bent on taming out-of-control guest lists. Kabul wedding halls with Las Vegas-style razzle dazzle are busy as Afghans rush to get hitched before next month's Ramadan fasting begins, in a colourful contrast to the Taliban era when musical revelry and dancing were banned.Hundreds of people -- not counting the ubiquitous wedding crashers -- typically attend celebrations in these halls segregated by gender, with a bulging guest list seen both as a social obligation and a totem of affluence."In Afghanistan you invite the whole village, the whole tribe, everyone who ever invited you to their wedding -- and they bring their own guests," Akbar Sabawoon said over the din of drumbeats in Qasr-e-Paris (Paris Palace), a neon-spangled hall with a huge replica of the Eiffel Tower in the forecourt."If you invite 1,000 people, be ready to entertain 1,500," the cousin of the bride told AFP as a traditional Attan folk dance erupted behind him.But in a hugely contentious move lawmakers recently passed a bill aimed at taming Afghanistan's Wild West wedding culture, limiting the number of guests to 500 and capping the catering bill per head at 400 Afghanis ($7).The bill seeks to relieve the huge financial strain weddings pose on grooms, who usually pay for everything from the banquet feast to bride price, a kind of reverse dowry presented to the girl's family in the form of cash, goods or livestock.Thousands of dollars are typically splurged on weddings, a small fortune in a country wracked by poverty and war, driving families into massive debts and forcing young men to delay marriage, lawmakers say. - Glitzy escapism - But the bill, awaiting presidential approval, has sparked protest from wedding hall owners who worry the move could devastate their flourishing business -- a rare bright spot in a nose-diving economy as international aid fast evaporates after 13 years of war."Narrow-minded MPs are picking on this issue to distract attention from real problems such as worsening security," said Hajji Ghulam Siddique, the owner of Uranus, one of the biggest of nearly three dozen wedding halls in Kabul."Even the Taliban want to kill extravagance.
Afghan Weddings: Bigger, Fatter And Hard To Tame
Anuj Chopra, Business Insider
Sun, 05/24/2015 - 7:19am
Topics: - afp with las vegas-style in afghanistan akbar sabawoon qasr-e-paris paris palace eiffel tower attan afghanistan's wild west afghanis .the glitzy but narrow-minded mps hajji ghulam siddique uranus shoaib khaksari khushal nabizada marriage some dari kabul i afghanistan afghans taliban afghan qasr-e-paris qasr-e-paris hard guest halls guests people men lawmakers groom women years rare slowly revelry move feast sexual huge hall nervous attend full segregated young folk war
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