Some 1,000 people were celebrating the wedding of Hannen, the bride, and Riva, the groom, in a bouquet hall in the Iraqi northern town of Hamdaniya on Tuesday night. Their joy soon turned into a tragedy after a fire broke out and killed over 100 party-goers. Hannen and Riva avoided public appearances until Friday amid reports of threats against them by the families of some victims who blame them for the catastrophic incident. 

The groom appeared in a mass burial ceremony on Wednesday but the bride avoided the media. 

Both on Friday appeared at the burial procession of Hannen’s mother and brother who died in the wedding fire. They wore all black. 

Hamdaniya is one of Iraq’s only Christian-majority districts, located in the Nineveh Plains near Mosul, a historic Assyrian region. Like many Christian towns in the Nineveh Plains, it was taken over by Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists during their brazen sweep of northern Iraq, where they declared a so-called “caliphate” and inflicted grave atrocities on minority groups, including Christians.

The Assyrian Christian towns were retaken by Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in 2017 when ISIS was driven out of the area. Hamdaniya was visited by Pope Francis during his historic visit to Iraq in 2021.

Photos: Rudaw