TEHRAN: Iranian authorities held mass public weddings in Tehran for couples who signed up to a state-sponsored scheme declaring their readiness to sacrifice their lives in the war against the US and Israel. The ceremonies involved hundreds of couples in several major squares in the capital, including more than 100 in the vast Imam Hossein square in central Tehran, according to reports in Iranian media. They were broadcast on state TV in a bid to boost wartime morale, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatening new military action against Iran amid a shaky ceasefire which halted the fighting that began on February 28.
Those involved had signed up, according to Iranian media, for the so-called "self-sacrifice" scheme where people pledged to put their lives on the line in the war by, for example, forming human chains outside power stations. Iranian authorities say millions of people, including top figures such as speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and President Masoud Pezeshkian, have put their names forward.
The stage was festooned with balloons and with a giant image of supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since being elevated to the position after the killing of his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war. "Certainly, the country is at war, but young people also have the right to marry," one young woman in a white Islamic bridal dress, who was not named, said beside her groom in footage published by the Mehr news agency. Mehr said 110 couples had taken part in the Imam Hossein square ceremony alone. — AFP
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