Whenever I tell my friends that I’ve thought about getting married to a guy that my parents will pick for me, I always get the same response.
“Wait a minute, an arranged marriage!?”
“But why? Aren’t you worried!?”
“Last I checked it’s not the 1900s.”
Et cetera, et cetera.
They’re right, it’s definitely not the 1900s anymore. Times are changing and society is moving forward.
Like any other woman, when I was younger I was adamant about being in a love marriage — falling in love and getting married with or without my parents’ approval was the dream, just like in the movies. Of course my parents continuously squashed that idea right out of my head. I still remember that one day a few years ago when we went out for a lovely family dinner like we do every few weeks. Of course I, being the petulant child that I sometimes am, brought up the topic of matrimony and asked my parents outright why they wanted me to have an arranged marriage. That’s right, I came straight out and asked them. Shocker, right? But I can tell you now that this was the most informative conversation I have ever had with my parents in all my 20-something years of life.
“We just want a happy life for you,” my dad explained to me. I told him that I knew this. Every father dreams of a content life for his children. “But it’s my life. I’m the one getting married, so I should decide who I marry,” I argued back. As a born and bred Canadian, the whole concept of an arranged marriage was unsettling to me.
Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/tamilculture/arrange-marriage-decision_b_7433342.html
Tags: arranged marriage, Asian, forced marriage, halo project
