I am 33, well educated and employed, but I have been rejected by many traditional Iraqi women's families because of my marital status.
There's the rest of the story. He's an educated, westernized Iraqi who's been burned in a divorce and now he wants a traditional obedient Arab wife to take care of the kid and who will not put him through the wringer again.

Even without the "sectarian tensions created by the war" there were not a lot of mixed Sunni-Shi'a marriages in Saddam's day and before. Among the educated classes, yes, on occasion, but you sure didn't see your average small town or village Iraqi crossing the sectarian divide for a marriage. When it did happen it was a true Romeo and Juliet moment (or more appropriately Qays and Leyla).

Keep texting away, Achmed.