Pandemic Helps Gaza’s Youth Tie the Knot Sanaa Alswerky
21% rise in marriages as the coronavirus crisis drives costs down, official says
[Gaza City] In addition to dealing crushing blows to the health, finances and social lives of the more than 2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, the COVID-19 pandemic has, bizarrely, proved a blessing for many young couples in the tiny coastal enclave.
Gaza’s Islamic courts registered 20,919 marriage contracts in 2020, compared with 17,270 the previous year, an increase of 21%, Sheikh Hassan al-Jojo, the head of Gaza’s Supreme Sharia Judicial Council, told reporters last week.
Jojo attributed the spike to the drop in the costs of a wedding due to the COVID-19 outbreak, with young people able to marry with fewer expenses.