Feature: Widows of victims killed in Israeli wars on Gaza marry their brothers-in-law

Adnan Yassin and his twin brother Rashad, shared most of the details of their life since they were born, but they had never imagined at all that one day one of them would get married to the other's wife in case one of them died or got killed.

Adnan and Rashad Yassin were born in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip. When they grew up, they decided to get married in a same day. However, the family's living condition allowed only for one marriage instead of two marriages at once, and Rashad was the one who got married.

Adnan remained single and kept preparing himself for his marriage, but did not know that a tragic scenario was waiting for him, when his brother Rashad was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the Israeli military offensive waged on the Gaza Strip last summer.

Rashad left a widow and one-year-old baby girl. Adnan was so sad to lose his twin brother, but at the same time he decided not to leave his sister-in-law and her child lonely. After getting the courage and the blessing of the family, he decided to get married to the wife of his brother.

"My brother Rashad was five minutes older than me," Adnan told Xinhua with a large smile on his face, adding that "over the past 25 years, we have been sharing tiny details of our life and we never split. We have been all the time together."

He went on saying that in the beginning when his brother was killed, he was deeply sad and felt like he lost his half, adding that "then I was deeply concerned about his wife and his daughter and that if they leave, they may face a hard fate with suffering and more tragedies."

Rashad was apparently in a better living condition than his brother Adnan, so he was helping him all the time. "I really did not understand, maybe my brother was helping me because he felt that one day he will leave and I will take care of his family," said Adnan.

"When my parents heard the idea, they were so happy, because finally a new father will take care of the baby girl and compensate her the loss of her father," said Adnan, adding that "my parents encouraged me and I see no obstacles that obstruct me from getting married and start a new life and a new family. "

Last month, the marriage of Adnan and his former sister-in-law was declared at Nuseirat refugee camp. Adnan and other two young men from the same refugee got married in February to their sister-in-law whose husbands were killed last summer during the Gaza war.

The coastal enclave is known as a conservative society. However, the marriages of widows to their brothers-in-law had become so common in the territory after a series of Israeli wars were waged on the Gaza Strip in the last 10 years, which left dozens of widows with orphan children.

According to the figures of the Palestinian Statistic Central Bureau, 6.1 percent of the Palestinian society women are widows. However, widows represent 17 percent of females in the Gaza Strip.

In the last Israeli offensive which lasted for 50 days, around 2,200 Palestinians were killed and over 11,000 wounded. And according to official figures of the Palestinian health ministry, among the victims are women and children, as well as young men, some of them newly married.

Hayfaa el-Agha, minister of Women's Affairs in the Palestinian unity government, told Xinhua that one of the hardest consequences of the last Israeli war on Gaza is leaving dozens of widows with children.

"We encourage this kind of marriage because it protects the mother and her children and getting married to someone in the family means a reunion and keeping the family's textile so powerful," said the minister, adding that "this saves widows from a bad social and psychological reality."

However, Zeinab al-Ghuneimi, legal consultant at Gaza Women Affairs Center, told Xinhua that she is against the idea of a widow getting married to her brother-in-law because "this is a humiliation to the rights of women and turns women as a commodity for sales."

"It is unacceptable to go for such projects of finding an urgent husband to the widow. Therefore, I believe that it is the rights of any woman to choose her partner or future husband and let her depend on herself. Otherwise, such a principle would humiliate her dignity." Endit