The Economist - USA (2022-01-29)

44 Middle East & Africa The Economist January 29th 2022

T

hecostofa typicalSaudiweddingis

enoughtodeterthemostpassionate

lover.Evena modestpartyinvolves

rentinga sumptuousballroomandin­

vitinghundredsofguests.Thebridaldais

shouldbefitforroyalty;thecakemust

havemanytiers.Thentherearethe

swordsmen,cheerleadersandmusi­

cians.Menandwomengatherinsep­

aratehalls,doublingsomeoftheprices.

Altogetherit mightcost200,000riyals

($53,000),thoughrichSaudiswillpay

fourtimesthatjusttohirethetopcroon­

ers.Manyofthesemarriageswillendin

divorce.Thosethatdon’tareoftenbur­

denedwithdebt.“Sevenyearsintomy

marriageandI’mstillpayingoffbank

loansfora two­hourbash,”saysRayan

al­Sameiri,a teacherinMedinawhoalso

worksasa taxi­driver.

Manycoupleshavethereforewel­

comedcovid­19—or,atleast,there­

strictionsthathavecomewithit.In 2020

SaudiArabialimitedgatheringsto 50

peopleorfewer.Socouplescoulddown­

sizetheirweddingswithoutlosingface.

Someditchedthezaffa(musicalproces­

sion)andthearda(sworddance),and

chosecommunalhallsoverballrooms.

Smallercrowdsatesmallercakes.Travel

bansruledoutextravaganthoneymoons.

Allinalla Saudicouplemighthavespent

90%lessontheirnuptials.Thesamewas

trueinmuchoftheGulf,wherecouples

rushedtograbthediscount.Thenumber

ofmarriagesleaptby9%inSaudiArabia

in2020.TheywereupinKuwait,Qatar

andtheUnitedArabEmirates,too.

Willmodestweddingsbecomethe

newnorm?Fewcouplescomplained

whentheOmicronsurgeforcedSaudi

Arabiatoreimposesomerestrictions.As

theoutbreakrecedes,somestillfeign

concernoverthehealthofin­laws.“Agirl

alwaysdreamsofa five­starmarriage,

butcovidhasmadeusmorepractical,”

saysBayanZahran,a lawyerinJeddah.

“Whyfritterawayyourfuturewithfive

hoursofexorbitantcosts?”Somecouples

areoptingforMisyarmarriages,which

imposefewobligationsoneitherside.

(Licensedbyclerics,Misyarisalsopop­

ularwithadulterers,whotaketheir

mistressesasadditionalwives.)

Thebetrothed,though,muststilldeal

withpressurefromtheirfamilyand

peers.“Paradisewithoutpeopleisnot

worthgoingto,”runsanArabicproverb

doingtherounds.Thesameistrueof

weddings,saytraditionalists.

WeddingsintheGulf

Lockdown love

M EDINA

Getmarriedcheaply,whileyoustillcan

Sayyestothedress

IslamicState

Jailhouse rocked

P

risonbreakshaveplayeda centralrole

in the mythology of Islamic State (is). In

2007  the  jihadist  group’s  predecessor

claimed responsibility for a jailbreak at Ba­

dush  prison,  in  northern  Iraq,  that  freed

140 detainees. Five years later it launched a

campaign called “Breaking the Walls”, a se­

ries of attacks on Iraqi prisons. The climax,

in  July  2013,  was  a  simultaneous  raid  on

jails in Taji and Abu Ghraib that freed more

than  500  people,  mostly  Iraqi  insurgents.

Soon iswould seize a large stretch of Iraqi

territory and proclaim its caliphate. 

In  some  ways  the  battle  this  month  at

Ghweiran  prison,  in  north­eastern  Syria,

harked back to earlier times. The jail hous­

es around 5,000 people, many of them Syr­

ians  and  Iraqis  accused  of  links  to  is.  On

January 20th the group attacked and seized

it in a well­planned assault.

It  took  almost  a  week  for  the  Syrian

Democratic Forces (sdf), a Kurdish­led mi­

litia, to wrest back control. Hundreds of in­

mates  escaped;  not  all  have  been  recap­

tured.  Dozens  of  people  were  killed  in

fighting inside the prison and in surround­

ing neighbourhoods. Some of the dead are

thought  to  be  children  held  in  Ghweiran

who were used as human shields by is.

The  fighting  drew  in  America,  which

has troops in both Syria and neighbouring

Iraq.  It  sent  armoured  vehicles  to  aid  the

sdfand carried out air strikes. Britain sent

special forces. It was the largest clash with

issince 2019, when the group was defeated

at  its  final  redoubt  in  Baghouz,  near  the

Syrian­Iraqi border.

isis  not  the  organisation  it  once  was,

though. It has not held territory since 2019,

and  for  now  seems  unlikely  to  do  so.  In­

stead  it  has  morphed  into  a  low­level  in­

surgency—one that has proved remarkably

resilient.  The  unestimates  it  has  around

10,000 members in Iraq and Syria. It carries

out  100  to  150  attacks  a  month  there,  ac­

cording  to  American  officials.  Around  the

time of the prison attack, an iscell stormed

an  army  outpost  in  eastern  Iraq,  killing  11

soldiers. In December another cell behead­

ed an Iraqi police colonel. 

The siege at Ghweiran was a predictable

catastrophe. Critics have long warned that

the  prisons  in  north­eastern  Syria  were

kindling  soaked  in  petrol.  Governed  by  a

Kurdish­led  administration,  the  semi­au­

tonomous region is fragile, facing not only

isbut a hostile Turkey and a Syrian regime

that  wants  to  bring  it  back  under  central

control.  The  sdf,  by  its  own  admission,

struggles  to  guard  the  prisons;  attempted

escapes are common.

Though most of the detainees are Syri­

an  and  Iraqi,  thousands  are  foreigners,

hailing  from  around  60  countries.  Many

countries,  particularly  in  Europe,  are  re­

luctant  to  bring  their  citizens  home,  fear­

ing they will be hard to prosecute or moni­

tor. Instead they have been left for years in

squalid conditions.

The largest prison camp, al­Hol, houses

around 56,000 people, most of them chil­

dren.  Some  of  the  camp’s  adult  detainees

still believe in isand work to indoctrinate

the young. They enforce a strict dress code,

ban smoking and music and torment those

who  turn  away  from  their  ideology,  espe­

cially  women.  Suspected  deviants  are

sometimes  tortured  or  have  their  tents

burned. At least 90 people have been mur­

dered in al­Hol since last January. 

Among the prisoners at Ghweiran were

perhaps  800  children.  None  has  been

charged  with  a  crime;  some  were  trans­

ferred from other camps when authorities

deemed them too old to stay. Though sepa­

rated from adults, they are stuffed a dozen

or more to a cell and given no schooling.

The  sdf says  it  has  recaptured  the

whole prison complex. There were no pre­

cise  casualty  figures.  The  attack  was  a  re­

minder that isremains a threat—and that,

as  long  as  tens  ofthousands  of  detainees

languish in north­eastern Syria, more such

attacks will follow.n

D UBAI

A week-long prison battle in Syria was

a disaster long foretold