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Newly Met Occupiers Say 'I Do' in Zuccotti Park

'We are fighting for equality here,' bride says

By Neal Colgrass, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 13, 2011 1:56 PM CST

(Newser) – They met while looking for a place to pray amid the tents and protesters in Zuccotti Park. A month later, the two lovebirds said "I do" in the very same park, surrounded by friends and fellow Occupiers, the New York Daily News reports. Emery Abdel-Latif, 24, and Micha Balon, 19, tied the knot this morning in a tradition Muslim wedding on a small bench. "This is a good way not to make the marriage about ourselves,” says Balon. “We are fighting for equality here."

"I'm really glad God has granted me someone who cares about people in this world other than himself," says Balon, who's studying human rights and the Middle East. Abdel-Latif, a prospective law student, says Balon opened up his heart: "I'm not sure I believed in love before I met her." The giddy pair married beside a bronze statue of a businessman that survived 9/11—and became a symbol for those who didn't make it. "It was very symbolic," says a friend of the couple. "I just wanted to cry."

Singers Graham Nash, center left, and David Crosby, center right, perform a free acoustic concert of protest songs at Occupy Wall Street's Zuccotti Park encampment in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, file)

Two newlyweds in bliss. (Shutterstock)

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Newly Met Occupiers Say 'I Do' in Zuccotti Park

'We are fighting for equality here,' bride says

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