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Arranged Marriage

Arranged marriage sounds like something from ancient times, but believe it or not this still goes on today in many countries. An arranged marriage is just like it sounds, a marriage that was arranged by the parents; sometimes the bride and groom didn’t even know one another.

An arranged marriage has a lot of history behind it and for the cultures that have this they take pride in it. Where many of us frown upon it and get angry at the thought of making someone marry someone they don’t want to marry, however we never really stop and think about the way the culture is. For many countries there is honor in the arranged marriage, their families are helping them choose whom to marry. Those people that hold the tradition find it like betrayal if the bride or groom decides against marrying each other. It is very much like a slap in the face. In fact it is so serious that if a bride decides not to marry she is put to her own death and if not she will surely know the shame she has put on her family.

In a way, don’t we all do this by having the groom ask for the daughter’s hand in marriage? I know my own husband asked for my father’s permission before we got married. Does your family have any traditional ways of doing a marriage; other cultures have done this for years, it is their traditions.

Believe it or not, arranged marriages tend to last a lot longer than a marriage of love. One tends to believe that everything will be all polished and perfect for a marriage of love, however after that honeymoon stage the couple starts noticing things they never did. In an arranged marriage the couple knows they have faults and are waiting to discover what they are and how they will work around them.

In India there are several different arranged marriages that can be performed, one is old school, a modern one and then the western arranged marriage. The old school is more when the couple never gets to meet until their wedding day, which makes it kind of hard to like or dislike the person you are marrying. The modern arranged marriage is when history decided that the couple should at least meet a few times to see what each other are like. The western arranged marriage is probably the best out of the bunch, a group of women and men are lined up and they get to actually date and see how much they like each other and settle on one of the ones in the circle.

Long ago, arranged marriages were performed so that one kingdom could become one with another. Keep money in the family and grow stronger or conquer other countries and kingdoms. Arranged marriages could’ve been decided at the birth of the child, the moment he/she was born a name was decided and that was whom they’d end up marrying.

The UK is currently trying to pass a law so that arranged marriage cannot be done anymore. One issue is the age in which an arranged marriage is formed, the sponsor, also known as the spouse must be 18, while some believe that one of the spouses should be 21. The other issue is making not only the spouse but also the other partner to be at least 18 years of age before marriage. This way no one is marrying a girl/guy under 18.

An arranged marriage may only work if both parties are willing, while not every country recognizes this it does have a lot of history to back it. Of course I still prefer to pick my own man that I want to spend the rest of my life with, no arranged marriage for me.