An Iraqi Mandean priest leads a couple during a wedding ceremony
conducted in the ancient Aramaic language on the Tigris river in
Baghdad June 8, 2003. Iraqi devotees of an obscure religion who take
John the Baptist as their central figure perform virginity tests on
their brides and take a dip in the murky Tigris river every Sunday to
purify the soul. Most of the worldAEs 20,000 or so Mandeans live in
southern Iraq and southwestern Iran. REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber

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