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Modern Love

Marriage Classes at Guantánamo

Modern Love

The New York Times

Love, New York Times, Nytimes, Essay, Loss, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Redemption, Nyt

4.39K Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2022

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mansoor Adayfi was only 19 when he arrived at the prison camp at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Growing up in a tiny village in the mountains of Yemen, “I didn’t know much about the world,” he said. “Now my world was Guantánamo.” For a period during his 14 years there, he and his fellow detainees organized informal classes for one another. There was a cooking class, taught by a former chef. In a marriage class, they learned about love. They shared their views on how men should treat women, they discussed what it would feel like to meet the person you love, and they even simulated an engagement and wedding celebration. “I have never been in love, but now I could feel its sweetness,” Mansoor said. Today, we listen to Mansoor’s essay and then hear an update from him. Since Guantánamo, he said he has experienced one of the best moments of his life — and one of the most painful. He talks to our host, Anna Martin, about what he would now teach others about the art of love. Mansoor Adayfi is the author of “Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo."

Transcript

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0:00.0

Love now and...

0:04.0

Love, love, love.

0:06.0

Love is stronger than anything.

0:08.0

I feel the love, love.

0:10.0

And I love you more than anything.

0:12.0

I love you more than anything.

0:14.0

I love you more than anything.

0:16.0

From the New York Times, I'm Anna Martin,

0:18.0

and this is Modern Love.

0:20.0

This week's essay is written by Mansour Adyfe.

0:24.0

It's about how Mansour nurtured hope

0:27.0

in a place designed to destroy it.

0:31.0

It's called Taking Marriage Class at Guantanamo,

0:35.0

and it's read by Eduardo Bellarini.

0:37.0

Until I was 35, the most significant relationship I'd had as an adult was with an iguana.

0:51.0

It wasn't easy to meet anyone where I was for all of my 20s

0:56.0

and nearly half of my 30s.

0:58.0

At the prison camp, at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

1:02.0

When I arrived, I was put in an isolation cell.

1:08.0

We're huge fans, blue day and night,

1:11.0

making deafening noise to prevent us from talking to each other.

1:16.0

Even when we went outside for recreation,

...

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