In Jordan, online wedding contracts ease coronavirus blues
Published 16 Jul,2020 via The Jordan Times AMMAN — Marriage applications were suspended in mid-March when the coronavirus crisis started, but after online permissions were granted to apply for marriage online, a total of 7,190 marriages registered in Sharia courts all around the Kingdom, took place through June.
The Supreme Judge Department’s Spokesperson Ashraf Al Omari said that 3,640 marriage contracts were registered before March 17 while work was still ongoing before the lockdown.
From March 17 until the end of the month, no marriage contracts were registered due to the lockdown that the government imposed to prevent the spread of the virus, Omari said, noting that at the end of April, applications for marriage were allowed online, allowing physical meetings only for the betrothed, the parents, the contractor and the witnesses.
The service provided at home by the court’s marriage officers continued throughout May, heeding preventive and health measures, the spokesperson said, noting that once work partially returned at Sharia courts the number of marriage contracts increased, but remained under the usual average.
Under normal circumstances, Omari said that marriage contracts reach 5,500 monthly, but have dropped this year to almost half due to the exceptional circumstances imposed by the pandemic.
As of June, the courts have returned to work in full capacity as per the instructions of going back to work that the government circulated on public institutions, he concluded.
As businesses shut down for a three-month period and public gatherings are banned, wedding halls have been complaining about the deterioration of the sector, according to various reports published by the Jordan Labour Watch during May, June and July.
According to recent statements to Al Mamlaka TV, Bassam Hijawi, a member of the National Epidemiological Committee, said that 85 per cent of the people infected with COVID-19 do not exhibit symptoms.
Therefore, Hijawi said “no one is safe from the virus”, regardless of their sex or age, with some segments more prone to infection than others, with factors that increase the risk, such as having diabetes.
As a new case was recorded in the Kingdom on Tuesday after eight days with no local infections, there are no signs that the government will ease restrictions on mass gatherings, including weddings and funerals, as long as the fear of the virus spreading remains.
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