KABUL — There was still confetti on his tuxedo when Ahmed Rashed Azimi settled into his purple throne at the center of an expansive wedding hall and surveyed the crowd: 1,200 friends and family members, a live band, costumed dancers and a crew of greeters dressed in the colors of the telecom company that made him rich.
“This is the biggest wedding in Kabul,” Azimi said. He wasn’t smiling. “It cost so much money.”
There’s perhaps no better symbol of this city’s recent infusion of wealth than the glitzy wedding halls that have sprouted near its center, with Vegas-style replicas of the Eiffel Tower and flashing neon everything.
But the country’s government sees such celebrations as a different kind of emblem — of waste and anti-Islamic values. A law proposed this year by the Ministry of Justice would curb celebrations like Azimi’s, placing a limit on the number of guests and the cost of festivities. As American troops prepare to begin drawing down from Afghanistan, the law is an attempt to rebuild traditional Afghan culture, which, according to some officials, has been corrupted since U.S. forces helped overthrow the Taliban in 2001.
“The parties have gotten out of control. People spend money they don’t have and go into debt for many years. It’s not good for the society,” said Muhammad Qasim Hashimzai, the deputy justice minister.
The law, which would also prevent women from wearing dresses “contrary to Islamic sharia,” reminds some here of Taliban-era paternalism. It doesn’t jibe with the new Afghanistan, they say, a place where an influx of foreign dollars has created a new elite eager to flaunt its wealth, even as the vast majority of Afghans live in poverty.
Azimi is no doubt a part of that elite. He makes a substantial salary in the country’s booming telecom industry. He drives a new car and owns a closet full of shiny, Western suits. But even for Azimi, the cost of a wedding big and glamorous enough to impress colleagues and friends is difficult to shoulder. The string of parties during the week of his wedding will cost him about $80,000.
That is part of the reason why the stout, mustached 26-year-old sits on the throne with his lips pursed, looking thoroughly unhappy. Every guest who walks in the hall costs him another $15.
“I can’t refuse these people,” he said. “They invited me to their weddings. How can I not invite them to mine?”
Azimi borrowed money from family members to foot the bill, but he’d much prefer an excuse to thin the guest list. The justice ministry’s new law would serve as that kind of excuse, he said: “Then I could just tell them, ‘Sorry, the government has placed a restriction. There’s nothing I can do.’ ”
The Law on Prevention of Extravagance in Wedding Ceremonies would limit the number of wedding guests to 300 and the amount spent to around $7 per guest. It also aims to prevent grooms’ families from spending too much money on gifts for brides and their relatives. Brides, who sometimes wear more than a dozen outfits during wedding-related festivities, would receive only two dresses — one for an engagement party and one for the wedding itself.
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