Arranged Marriages

Arranged Marriages : should the parents decide
Some people believe in love at first sight, while others believe it takes time to love someone. In life having a companion is a very important factor. It’s hard to form a good relationship right when you meet that person. It takes time, patience, and trust to love that person and positively is sure it will last. If a relationship goes well, it will eventually end in marriage. Some cultures in the world however don’t allow their children to meet that special someone on their own. So you ask then how would they meet someone that they would love and get married to. This brings me to the tradition of arranged marriages.
Arranged marriages have been around in parts of the Middle East and Asia as long as the institution of marriage itself. In the arranged world, they say marriage comes first and love later. The question is what is an arranged marriage? Arranged marriages for the previous generations were arranged solely by the parents. The boy or girl probably wouldn’t even see each other before the wedding, depending on the parents. The parents by word of mouth from a friend or relative would hear of someone’s son or daughter. Than they would go and approach the family if they were

Arranged marriages are done all over the world but was first introduced in the eastern countries. Arranged marriages are very interesting to learn about while learning about the different cultures that do this. This is a different aspect to look at while looking at the way countries do their marriage traditions.

Western countries, such as Canada and the United States of America, believe In a dating system that consists of seeing many different people to choose a compatible mate which they will marry in the future (Sharma, Kirti). Arranged couples living here in the United States see that Western societal and cultural pressures differ from their homeland. Which is why some won’t ask their children to accept an arranged marriage. In western society of course, arranged marriages are often looked down upon as being “ Old fashioned” or out of date (Women’s table).

With a number of traditional African cultures (Olinka tribe for example) and Asian cultures (India comes to mind), it is common for women to have their mates already selected for them by both the women’s and their mates’ parents. (Women’s table). When it comes to the choice of marriage, the children don’t have much of it. Instead in this generation its much more modern, the parents would decide first if this person would be the right person, then give the child the choice. In the view of the child, this would not be easy because some parents would persuade their child to marry this person even though they choose not to.

Here in America, since arranged marriages are not as common as in the eastern countries, there are people (preferably men) who have been to jail for arranged marriages. Mostly older men take advantage of this tradition by marrying girls as young as 12