- Title: KYRGYZSTAN: Government foots the bill for mass wedding
- Date: 9th May 2011
- Summary: COUPLES STANDING WITH FLOWERS
- Embargoed: 24th May 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Kyrgyzstan
- Country: Kyrgyzstan
- Topics: Domestic Politics,Social Services / Welfare
- Reuters ID: LVA184ICNMUK8KZLJY37ERKU2NXL
- Story Text: Twenty young Kyrgyz couples dressed in traditional marriage costumes took part in a mass wedding in Bishkek on Saturday (May 7), a ceremony which was funded by the Kyrgyz government to encourage young people from low-income families to tie the knot.
The wedding was organised by the Kyrgyz Youth Affairs Ministry, which spent about 15,000 Euros ( 2 1,600 USD) on the event.
As in many countries in Central Asia, weddings are considered to be the most important family event in Kyrgyzstan, which has an 85 per cent Muslim population.
According to national tradition, the families of both the bride and the groom invest a significant amount of money into the celebration and are expected to provide the newly weds with some financial aid to help them start a new life.
However, not all Kyrgyz families can afford a wedding.
"I work in a state-financed organisation and of course my salary is too small. I do not have a husband, he died a long time ago, unfortunately, so when we heard about this sponsorship, we applied for it," said Ainagul Madiyeva, the mother of one of the grooms.
The data provided by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) shows that almost one third of the Kyrgyz population of five million lives below the poverty line and that prices are rising much faster than people's real incomes.
The Kyrgyz government, headed by President Rosa Otunbayeva, is trying to build Central Asia's first parliamentary democracy and its Ministry of Finance has promised 10 per cent inflation and 10.5 per cent unemployment by the end of 2011.
But according to independent analysts, inflation in Kyrgyzstan will outstrip the official prediction and will increase by no less than 20 per cent this year.
The young couples who took part in the ceremony on Saturday were provided with everything they needed for a proper wedding - from national-style wedding dresses and costumes - to flowers and food for the guests. Each couple was permitted to bring twenty guests with them.
They first laid flowers at the memorial of the eternal flame, dedicated to the nation's World War II dead, and then went on to the wedding ceremony itself which took place in Bishkek's Central Park.
"I never thought it would be such a beautiful wedding. We did not even dream about it. I think it is the first time that such a wedding is being held in Kyrgyzstan and CIS countries. It is symbolic and significant for Kyrgyz youth, it shows that they can hold weddings in such a national style. We are very happy and excited," one of the grooms, Mirlan Mamyrkanov, said.
The couples were first blessed by a Mullah, who performed a Muslim wedding ceremony, called the Nikah, according to Sharia traditions. Then after greeting friends and relatives, the newly-weds signed official registration papers.
The mass wedding ceremony ended with a big joint party in an outdoor restaurant in the capital.
The Kyrgyz Youth Affairs Ministry organised the wedding as part of a social aid programme, Kyrgyz Youth Affairs Minister Aliyasbek Alymkulov said.
"We started the social youth policy program in 2009. We help them and give them the opportunity to register legally. Our young people like civil marriages, but it is not quite welcomed in our society, that is why we did it. We registered them and performed a Nikah according to Sharia. We will also keep helping them with employment, financially and morally. We will try to do our best," Alymkulov said.
The Kyrgyz government has started social youth-oriented programmes in recent months, in an attempt to stem the constant outflow of young people who leave to seek work elsewhere. The official number of unemployed in the country is 70,000 people, but in reality the figure is much higher, according to analysts.
It is feared that the high level of emigration among the working population of Krygyzstan could lead to a demographic crisis in 10 to 15 years, as only half of Kyrgyzstan's five million citizens are of working age.
The Kyrgyz government does not give an official figure for the number of people who have left the country in recent years, but observers estimate the numbers to be 30,000 people per year.
However, the Kyrgyz government admits that emigration from the country increased by 10 percent last year, partly due to the departure of some 40,000 ethnic Uzbeks following clashes with ethnic Kyrgyz in the south of the country.
In June 2010, thousands of minority Uzbeks fled from deadliest violence Kyrgyzstan has seen since the two ethnic groups fought over land 20 years ago. The official death toll of the clashes was over 300 people, but human rights activists say the figures were ten times bigger. Some of the ethnic Uzbeks did return to their homes in the southern town of Osh, but the majority still remains out of the country. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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