No bride at these fake weddings
By the time the booze was drunk, the hashish smoked and the five belly dancers had concluded their gyrations, the groom had collected $16,000 — a “profitable wedding,” in his words. His bride wasn’t there. No matter. “Some people hold weddings to celebrate, others do it as a business,” said the groom, Mohammed, a usedfurniture salesman. For Mohammed, the party was one of a series of fundraising events put on by his community group, a collection of hundreds of friends and relatives. One day he gives money to a fellow member. On another he is the recipient.
It is all part of Egypt’s vast informal economy, one that accounts for an estimated 40 per cent or more of the country’s gross domestic product. With a quarter of this nation of 87 million living in poverty, street weddings such as Mohammed’s, along with a slew of similar schemes, offer Egyptians who rarely set foot in a bank a chance to secure funds.
Raising money through group events comes from a traditional collective savings arrangement that Egyptians — and others across the developing world — have used for years. The weddings are sometimes real and those who attend bring cash to help launch the young couple on their new life.
At other times, wedding-like parties without an actual ceremony pop up as a means of mutual funding. The most common form, however, is when family and friends hold money collectives without celebrations.
Bringing such transactions into the formal sphere is a key challenge for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as he seeks to broaden the tax base, trim one of the region’s most bloated budget deficits and revive an economy battered by years of political unrest in the wake of Hosni Mubarak’s 2011 ouster. It is not easy. “Dealing with banks carries a lot of requirements that do not fit the nature of the Egyptian economy,” said Faika El-Refaie, former undersecretary of the Central Bank of Egypt. “The majority of people have very low incomes while those who make decent money don’t have documentation for it.”
Mohammed falls into the second category. His furniture business does well but is run out of an apartment and he doesn’t pay taxes. His one attempt at securing a bank loan failed because the bank wanted collateral and the interest rate was prohibitive. He tapped his network of family and friends.
On entering the vast pavilion set up on the closed-off street for the wedding, Mohammed’s guests were given flamboyant salutes by the MC. After a sampling of delicacies, each climbed on stage to make his contribution in cash. Two of Mohammed’s associates counted the money and registered it in a notebook.
The system is based on personal connections and trust. If Mohammed doesn’t later contribute to those who came to his wedding, his reputation will be damaged — if not worse. “People can get killed,” he said of those who fail to pay.
Mohammed held his real wedding days later in front of friends and family. The bride was in attendance.