Skype is the limit: Syrian women go for virtual marriages with men abroad
DAMASCUS: Marriage by proxy or via Skype has become very popular in Syria since the war erupted in 2011.
Many men have joined the conflict while others have fled to Europe, the Americas or neighboring countries. This has forced young people to resort to marriage by proxy.
Such marriages account for an estimated 54 percent of daily marriages in Syria, said Judge Mahmoud Al-Maarawi, who heads the religious court that oversees personal status issues for Syrian Muslims.
“I’m married to a man I never met. He’s almost twice my age, has two teenage daughters and lives in Romania,” Zainab, 28, told Arab News.
“I’ve been waiting for my visa for more than seven months so I can be united with my husband,” she said.
“There are no young men left in Syria, so this is my only chance at starting a family and leaving to become a citizen of a European country. I see no future for me here — at least this marriage gives me hope.”
Zainab and her husband Imran, 54, were introduced on Facebook. They spoke via WhatsApp and Skype for a month before they decided to complete all the paperwork for her immigration to Romania.
Some youth prefer to carry out marriage ceremonies through Skype, where a licensed notary, the bride, the groom, their parents and witnesses are present.
After the ceremony, the wife or an attorney takes the contract and gets it registered in court for the marriage to be legal and to start working on immigration documents.
The law of personal status has authorized sending an official power of attorney in a proxy marriage, Al-Maarawi said.
Anyone inside or outside Syria may either send a power of attorney to a trusted acquaintance, or appoint an attorney to conclude a marriage contract with the wife or her guardian.
Earlier this year, Al-Maarawi said 70 percent of women in Syria were unmarried — or “spinsters,” as he put it.
To solve what he believed was a problem, he released a statement encouraging polygamy, which angered many Syrians on social media.