TIMESONLINE: The Gota restaurant was packed. Cars lined the streets, you had to wait for a table and laughter filled the air as families gathered to break their Ramadan fasts in the upmarket Baghdad neighbourhood.
Even the crackle of gunfire in the background could not spoil the mood - for once, it was not caused by insurgents but a wedding party, firing off some rounds in celebration. “It’s like a dream, but it’s become truth,” said Sarmad, 29, a trendy, confident young professional. This is the first Ramadan since violence spiralled out of control in 2005 that Iraqis have felt safe enough to break their fasts in restaurants. In recent months people have even had the confidence to visit parks and spend the afternoons shopping; an unimaginable scenario as recently as six months ago.
For young, single men such as Sarmad it is a godsend. “We can meet girls now,” he said.
Love is in the Baghdad air, but the young men, eager for a date, still face the very real threat of an overprotective father or elder brother. It would be impossible to approach a girl directly and strike up a conversation.
This has simply made them more resourceful. A note, with your phone number, could be dropped beside a girl you like, but by far the most common method used is to send her a mobile phone message using Bluetooth technology.
Ice-cream shops and parks are popular places to pick up girls and to meet for dates. On a typical weekday hundreds of young people, many of them university students, gather in parks to mingle, chat and find prospective partners. “It usually happens by sending your phone number by Bluetooth and then you wait for her to give you a call,” Ahmmed Jaseb, 28, who goes to restaurants three or four times a week to look for girls, said. “We talk, go on a date, go to another restaurant. You have to go a couple of times to prove that you start to love her and not that you just want sex.” Toung Love Blooms Again in Baghdad with the Aid of Technology >>> By Tim Albone in Baghdad | September 20, 2008
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