{"id":1383,"date":"2017-08-10T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-10T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1383"},"modified":"2017-08-10T09:05:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-10T08:05:00","slug":"darkness-masked-in-lightness-the-designer-using-a-board-game-to-avoid-arranged-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/darkness-masked-in-lightness-the-designer-using-a-board-game-to-avoid-arranged-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Darkness masked in lightness&#8217;: the designer using a board game to avoid arranged marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"drop-cap\"><span class=\"drop-cap__inner\">I<\/span><\/span>n 2016, the Pakistani designer\u00a0<a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nashra.co\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Nashra Balagamwala<\/a>\u00a0attended her best friend\u2019s wedding in Karachi. She was approached by an older woman, who asked about her relationship status. \u201cYou\u2019re 22 and you\u2019re still single?\u201d the lady gawked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was in shock I wasn\u2019t getting engaged any time soon,\u201d said Balagamwala, who now lives in New York City. \u201cIt infuriated her before she walked off.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded\" data-component=\"rich-link\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-1 | 1\">\n<div class=\"rich-link tone-feature--item \">\n<div class=\"rich-link__container\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__header\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__arrow\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more-text\">Read more<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Pakistani women can face incredible pressure to wed at a young age. Balagamwala has worn fake engagement rings to weddings, cut her hair to look less feminine and even \u201cbecome more tanned and therefore more unappealing\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Now she wants to shed light on arranged marriage in a new board game called Arranged!, which will be released on her website on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The strategy game follows three young Pakistani women as they try to avoid a matchmaker. There are escapist tactics and genuine ways to finding Mr Right.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy parents have tried to have me married off multiple times,\u201d said Balagamwala. \u201cI want to avoid an arranged marriage without upsetting my parents too much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, Balagamwala started studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. Since graduating last year, she has worked at Hasbro, which makes Monopoly and Jenga, but her parents want to her to return to Karachi, just as her one-year work visa expires.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2017\/aug\/08\/nashra-balagamwala-pakistan-arranged-marriage-board-gamearranged-marriage-board-game-nashra-balagamwala-pakistan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2016, the Pakistani designer\u00a0Nashra Balagamwala\u00a0attended her best friend\u2019s wedding in Karachi. She was approached by an older woman, who asked about her relationship status. \u201cYou\u2019re 22 and you\u2019re still single?\u201d the lady gawked. \u201cShe was in shock I wasn\u2019t getting engaged any time soon,\u201d said Balagamwala, who now lives in New York City. \u201cIt [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forced-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1384,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions\/1384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}