The Current Discussion: For Valentine’s Day, this question: What is the future of love?

There are 12 marriages per 1,000 citizens every month in Damascus, according to official statistics. Yet the Syrian capital also has a staggering 40% divorce rate. That means that out of every 1,000 people who get married, 400 of them then get divorced. The divorce rate is much lower in outside Damascus, in Latakia (9%), Aleppo (8%), Hama (7%) and Raqqa (3%). This shows that the Damascenes are the first ‘to fall in love’ and the first to get an early divorce.

Why is that?

My argument always has been that Damascus is a city that does not celebrate real love, or lovers, despite the grand commercial celebrations we have copied—with zero understanding—from the West on Valentine’s Day. It champions a variety of other ideals, like chivalry, nationalism, Arabism, and entrepreneurship—but not love. At a grassroots level, and with few notable exceptions, people do not get married because ‘they are in love.’ They do it to settle down—because it is expected by family and society—or as some people say, only to have children. That argument, I believe, does the institution of marriage—and love—a great injustice. It dwarfs both and reduces marriage to a robotic sexual activity with one clear and defined objective: making babies.

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