The title may be viewed as comedic relief, albeit carrying an air of truth to the tragedy that struck a Turkish groom at his wedding.
The last wedding disaster to be spoken of in the region was the terrible arson that took place at a wedding tent in Jahra. What ever became of the victim, who was scorned by her husband who chose to marry another, and took her revenge upon his new-bride by dousing her wedding tent in gasoline and setting fire to it, later denying any involvement in the accident that claimed almost 60 or so lives.
The tragic loss of life that day could have been minimised had the males in the family not refused the fire department entry into the tent to put out the fire, due to the fact that the women were not covered up (whereas a woman would usually be veiled infront of men, amongst other women they can dress as she wishes, hence it would not be decent for a non-directly-related-male to see her as such).
Blindly sticking to traditions was also the pit-fall inwhich this Turkish groom stumbled. To celebrate his wedding, as per tradition, he locked and loaded an AK-47 in an attempt for a rendition of the 21-gun salute. Sadly however, his inexperience with firearms proved to be his undoing, as he lost control of the weapon and ended up shooting his father and two aunts, who were later pronounced dead.
Firing into the air is commonplace as a celebration in parts of Turkey and has on many occasions led to deaths and injuries. Smart people would use empty rounds. What people fail to realise is a bullet that goes up in the air, even if at no target, is bound to land at some trajectory and strike an object, be it living, breathing or otherwise. Many a time we read in the news how people not affiliated with a wedding are struck dead as a result of a stray bullet.
The most logical question is why is this archaic tradition still being practiced to this day? What is the point in shooting a few rounds into the air haphazardly to celebrate a momentous occasion? I undestand heading to the shooting range, heck, I took my first shots a couple of weeks ago. But this, this is tragic.
BBC article.
It is about time mankind learned to sift through the traditions handed down by the forefathers and segregate them into useful and useless. Maybe then such tragedies can be prevented.
No comments:
Post a Comment