Thursday, August 28, 2008

"Longing to Belong" by Saira Shah

Arranged marriages play a major role in some societies. Throughout the Middle East and other regions of the world, women are forced to marry men for many reasons other than love. In some instances a marriage would be arranged for the advancement of a family. And in others, a marriage could be arranged for the simple reason that the family of the women would receive money if the man was wealthier. I, for one, cannot say an arranged marriage is disgusting or vile because I know it is a part of their culture, but I certainly do not agree with it. I have grown up a strong individual. I believe that everyone should be able to choose who they want to be with. An arranged marriage completely contradicts my beliefs.
I believe an arranged marriage is doomed from the start. It takes a long time to learn that you can spend every waking moment of everyday with a person. In most cases, two people forced into an arranged marriage have hardly ever seen each other let alone spent time alone together. How do they know that they will get along? How do they know they will not annoy each other? I know in marriage, especially arranged ones, you are together "until death do you part." Could you spend your entire life with someone that annoys you to no end. I could not.
Fortunately in "Longing to Belong," Saira is lucky enough to have the engagement called off. As I said before, I do not believe that arranged marriages are successful. Now I respect other cultures. They can live their lives however they want, but I can find my own husband.

2 comments:

K'Bob said...

I agree with your blog. Even though it might be a cultural or societal tradition, I feel that it forces woman and men to become people they do not necessarily want to be. I would hate to live with someone who annoyed me for two weeks, let alone forever. I feel like you need to get to know somebody before you even start thinking about marriage. Personally, I feel that a relationship should last at least half a year or a year before the couple get married. It will give you time to work out problems or even see if the relationship should be taken further.

eli said...

I completely agree. and may i say that put it a bit more eloquently then i did. Never the less i am in accord. I would never be able to tell in such a short time if i loved a specific person, and with out ever meeting them. eghh. That is why dating is so popular. it is a perfect tool, perfect experiment to how the rest of your life will play out.