Friday, August 12, 2016

Arranged and Assisted Marriages

An arranged marriage is a marriage in which neither the bride nor the groom has any official say over the selection of their future spouses. However, in an arranged marriage, both parties give full consent to the marriage. Arranged marriages have been a successful traditional aspect of family life in many cultures for many years.Arranged marriages have been part of many cultures for thousands of years, primarily born out of the desire and/or need for a financial, political or property-based partnership. As America expanded multi-culturally, this custom filtered through as certain ethnic groups sought to preserve cultural and class traditions. Cultural and family traditions have shaped views on romantic love and marriage. The purpose of assisted marriage or romantic marriage is not simply to preserve cultural identity, but more pointedly to maintain class, religious and regional identities in a place where they might easily be diffused.
Arranged and Assisted Marriages

Arranged marriage takes a lot of the guesswork out of picking a partner, relieves the stress of having too many choices, and puts your future in the hands of those whose experience you may trust more than your own. Looking at debates of whether arranged marriages are right, many women seem to be completely miserable under such a negotiation. Many problems that arise are bigamists that just want another wife to add to the bunch, domestic abuse within the home, or just a clashing of personalities due to not actually knowing one another until the two are to be wed.

Romantic love marriages are sometimes needed for a successful marriage. Sometimes when we love a person it's hard for us to get over. Although the experience of romantic love is universal, the forces shaping how couples come to bond vary widely across cultures. In many Middle Eastern and Asian countries, marriages are arranged by parents or local religious figures. Within the United States, individuals from cultures in which marriages traditionally are arranged often blend American and their own cultural practices. For example, first generation Americans have shifted away from arranged marriages to what can be described as "assisted marriages." In assisted marriages, parents "screen potential nominees" for caste, lineage, and a host of other factors, but they allow the partners to make the final decision regarding suitability. This model helps preserve traditional class, religious, and regional identities, while at the same time providing potential spouses greater freedom of choice than they might have outside the United States.

One factor that one can take into consideration immediately when looking at this topic is that societies in which arranged marriages continue to be acceptable could also have very different views on the acceptability of divorce. Also, there might be less freedom for people involved in such arrangements to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Women, in particular, may be tied by fear of the consequences if they express dissatisfaction. I think also it depends very much on the educational and cultural level of the families and on the society in which they live.  An arranged marriage that works more on a "blind date" system, with the young people having the final say on acceptability is significantly different from the case of a forced marriage against somebody's (usually the woman's) will, as will an arrangement organized for two consenting adults versus and arrangement in which one or both partners is still a child.


There seems to be arguments for and against arranged marriages. Good logical decisions are made in arranged marriages but they can lack the love that can be in a ‘love marriages'. Therefore it comes down to a personal opinion. Some do not have a choice because they choose to follow the religion they were brought up in but for Westerners they have choice whether to go down one path or the other. If it were possible to take the best of both ideas you may come up with a procedure that may benefit more of the people most of the time. However, it is not fair to say arranged marriages are cruel and old-fashioned if you are talking generally as it depends how the situation is handled.