Life In A Forced Marriage

Can you picture yourself marrying, sleeping, or spending the rest of your life with a stranger? Someone you don’t love? Arranged marriages are very common for people in India (Nanda). Parents find their kids a partner with good education, same social class, and decent appearance (Nanda). They want to give their kids a good shot in life. But, what about love? Shouldn’t one marry the love of their life? A disrespect towards the real meaning of marriage I could say. When you are told who to marry, it’s overstepping the limit of your personal life. Arranged marriages in India are no surprise; they are common. They believe arranged marriages will give their kids the life they deserve. They don’t care if you know the person or your opinion
Why take the risk of marrying a stranger not knowing how they are? He could be brutal and abusive. That was the case of Joelle Mazoud. In the article “Life in a Forced Marriage.” she discusses how her arranged marriage was the worst thing that had happened to her (Angel, MJ). Joelle was a 16 year-old girl who lived in Australia when she was forced to marry an unknown man. Mazoud explains how she suffered physical abuse in her 8 years of marriage. “The years that followed were the darkest of my life…” (Angel, MJ). She stated that because besides her getting hit and yelled at, she suffered 11 miscarriages. The fact that she wouldn’t have a baby caused more anger to grow in him (Angel,MJ). This is the perfect example on why people shouldn’t be a part of arranged marriages. Mazoud see’s an arranged marriage like “a business deal” (Angel, MJ). It’s not a marriage if you don’t agree with it. Making your kid marry someone because they will give them a good life, economic wise, is clearly a deal. If you actually cared for your child’s future you would allow them to marry someone they love and feel comfortable with. So, then that would show that the parents support the happiness of their children. Not all arranged marriages turn out to be what you expect, as we can see. Marriage should be for those who love and most importantly know each
Although they don’t know the person, they use their marriage as a way of doing that. For instance, in the article “The Married Indian: My Story of Arranged Marriage” Sameena Zaheer talks about how her marriage worked out good without love (Zaheer). She is an Indian girl who supports an arranged marriage. She states: “My parents found a boy who was well-bred and had an educated family background.” (Zaheer). Sameena believes her parents chose a good guy because they both agreed on accepting each other on how they were throughout time. The young lady Serena interviewed believed her parents were more experienced and should decide who their kids marry. Yet, she doesn’t realize that some girls don’t run the same luck she did. If, she had been paired up with a violent guy I’m sure her perspective on the topic would have changed. Marriage is very important to all of us and it’s not the best idea to divorce right away. One would say or think maybe the couple should work things out. But, a violent man is nothing easy to control. Someone doesn’t stop their hitting habits from one day to another. In India it would be considered as a disrespect towards the family to divorce (Zaheer). So, if they don’t want people to divorce why pair them up with a stranger not knowing if they are physically abusive? I don’t think anyone would like to stay and deal with someone who is aggressive for their rest of their life or until he