Peregraf- Masood Hadi
In a spot on Delal Bridge, Dlovan tied a padlock to the river’s guardrail inscribed with his and his lover’s names. He threw the key into the river and left the place with many hopes.
The guardrail is located at the lower part of the bridge and it is less than 50 meters long. Along with Dlovan’s lock, there are more than 400 locks which are also attached to it.
"It has been less than a month that I have decided to attach a lock in order to win my lover." Dlovan Dosky told Peregraf.
Dlovan is from Duhok and he heard about the guardrail and lovers’ lock from his friends in Zakho. Therefore, with his beloved, they decided to unlock the stalemate of their love in this way in order to reach each other.
"Everyone tries every way to fulfill their dreams. And my love and I decided to try this way. I told her to find an excuse to go to Delal Bridge and attach a lock to the guardrail."
Dlovan was afraid that the lock might be detached before he reached his goal, as it has been done with some of the locks. He wishes for the locks to be protected.
Love padlock is a worldwide tradition that originated in many European countries especially after 2000 CE. Two lovers inscribe their names or their initials on a lock and attach the lock to the guardrail of a bridge; they later throw the key into the river so their love will stay forever.
"With the emergence of the love lock phenomenon, many youths visited the place, but some people rejected it and found it anti-religious so I suspect it could have been they who detached my lock."
The youth explained to Peregraf that over a single night, 300 locks were broken, therefore, security forces should investigate and fine those who did it.
From a religious perspective, love lock is controversial; the majority find it incompatible with Islam. However, like all around the world, the tradition is spreading in some areas in Iraq.
Shaban Haji claims that he was the first to hang a lock to the guardrail. When Peshmerga Forces were fighting ISIS, we went to donate blood at a hospital. On their way back, with his friends, they decided to tie a lock for the victory of Peshmerga and for the love of their homeland.
According to Peregraf’s investigation, many youths visit Zakho and when they end up at the bridge they tie a lock for their love to the guardrail.
Shaban says "unfortunately, some ignorant people are against it; they have broken a huge number of locks."
According to Shaban, who monitors the locks, which had reached 600. But after they said it was against religion and many have been detached, there are still 400 locks tied to the guardrail.
Delal Bridge is located in the east of Zakho in Duhok governorate. The history of the bridge dates back to 900 CE. According to historians, the bridge is also known as Abbasi as it is associated to the Abbasid era. The bridge is 114 meters long, 2.75 meters wide and 16 meters high and it is one of the ancient remains on the Khabur River.
Muhammad Ahmed, Zakho Archeology Director, told Peregraf "every year, numerous tourists visit Delal Bridge and some of them attach a lock to the guardrail of the river and throw the key into the river."
"At the beginning, love locks were attached to the guardrail; many people from Zakho visited the place and hung locks, but now it has decreased as some of the locks were detached."
Muhammad says that everyone is free to hang lock on the guardrail. All the places in Zakho are secured; we will try to stop those who try to detach the locks.
