Updated

Feb

2013

11:53am, EST

Valentine wish: Can love conquer war in battle-weary Afghanistan?

As urban youths embrace the holiday banned by the Taliban, one group is banking on love, or at least marriage, to help end violence in Afghanistan. NBC News' Mandy Clark reports.

By Mandy Clark, Correspondent, NBC News

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Suliman and Farzana Sharifi’s marriage is very unusual in Afghanistan.

The 23-year-olds have a love match in a country where most weddings are arranged. That fact makes Valentine’s Day, a holiday banned by the Taliban but embraced by many of the country’s urban youth, extra-special for the two.

Both work hard to surprise each other on Valentine's Day, which they've celebrated for the three years they've been together.

“I don’t let him know, he doesn’t let me know," said Farzana, a university student who heads up an Islamic NGO that runs orphanages throughout the country. "Like a month before Valentine’s day we act that we don’t know it is Valentine’s Day. So, we normally surprise each other.”

This isn’t just a game – the couple believe that love is simply more powerful than hate, and it could be a weapon in ending the insurgency.

“When love comes even the Taliban can’t stop anybody,” Farzana adds.

But can love really stop Taliban fighters in other parts of the war-torn country?

An American charity put money on it. Getting married in Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, is very expensive. Women’s families can demand dowries of up to $10,000 from prospective husbands, Qasimi said. With the average Afghan earning less than $500 a year, these demands make marriage and family unachievable for many.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

With the help of local NGOs, Texas-based Comfort Aid International helped organize a mass wedding of 38 couples last year.

“We did this to prevent our youth from joining the Taliban side. They often join the Taliban because they are single and poor,” local organizer Sayeed Saleh Qasimi said.

That’s were Comfort Aid steps in – it has helped arrange the weddings for more than 1,000 couples already. Local organizations it works with have negotiated with local families to agree to more reasonable dowry prices.

One young husband, Sayeed Hussaini, says he simply wouldn’t have been able to get married without the charity’s help.

“Everyone wants things in life, like getting married,” the unemployed construction worker said. “But a lot of people are doing bad things for money like joining the Taliban.”

He added: “I am jobless but I will not join them.”

Hussaini's new wife Fatima is the reason he won’t risk his life.

She says she’s grateful for the charity’s help in easing their financial woes, which allowed the couple to marry.

So perhaps Farzana is right to hope that love can conquer war.

“I think love can change anything,” she said, turning to her husband Suliman. “Yeah, yeah it changed you, it changed me.”

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This story was originally published on Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:25 AM EST

Jan

2013

6:02am, EST

Japan's loudest lovebirds shout gratitude to their wives

Kiyoshi Ota / EPA

A husband shouts a message of love to his wife in a Tokyo park as part of an annual tradition in which normally reserved men declare their feelings in the most vocal manner.

By Hyun Oh, Reuters

TOKYO — Love was in the air in a Tokyo park as normally staid Japanese husbands gathered to scream out their feelings for their wives, promising gratitude and extra tight hugs.

With modesty and reticence traditionally valued over outspokenness, expressing deeper feelings such as love has long been hard in Japan.

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That's why dozens of Japanese men gather once a year ahead of Jan. 31, which in Japanese is a play on the words for "beloved wife," to let their feelings fly.

Declarations at the Tuesday night event ranged from a simple "I'll love you forever" to expressions of gratitude for homemade boxed lunches.

"I'm sorry that I've gained weight over the last seven years," a suit-clad man yelled. "But that's because the meals you cook are so delicious."

The event, now in its fifth year, was thought up by Kiyotaka Yamana with the support of a local flower shop to urge Japanese men to show their affection in more explicit ways.

Kiyoshi Ota / EPA

Husbands, shouting in unison, declare their love for their wives as part of an event that urges normally staid Japanese men to show their romantic side.

"The economy is getting better in Japan, and I see a lot of Japanese married couples getting more active in deepening their relationships," Yamana said.

Yamana founded the Japan Aisaika Organization, which promotes a culture of "Aisaika" or "adoring husbands." The group's website says it created Beloved Wives Day to urge Japanese husbands to "get home by 8 p.m. and say thanks to their wives for all they do."

At Tuesday's event, wives in the audience laughed and clapped, especially when one man got down on his knees to offer his wife a bouquet.

"He's very fabulous and manly today," said Yuko Todo, 33, after husband Takeshi's performance. "It just reminded me how macho he used to be — I'd forgotten that in the eight years we've been married. My heart pounded."