After the initial introduction, some families grant the prospective groom and bride a chance to meet in private, under supervision others allow them to get to know each other on the telephone, via text or email or even in person. The traditional period of courtship is relative from culture to culture, family to family. The expectation is that the seed for love is planted and will continue to bloom after the marriage. Since, generally, these cultures do not “date” in the popular Western cultural sense, many couples look to arranged marriages as a means to wedded bliss. Men and women who are ready and willing to get married may meet their future spouse through family or friends. In America, and in big Asian cities, a couple may get a few months before they are expected to walk down the aisle and sent off with their new life partner (read dictator). In more traditional arranged marriages-which are still very much alive and well in South Asian countries-couples may get only one or two meetings before their wedding day. No one threatens you physically to marry an individual against your will-if you belong to an educated family. Instead of using a dating app, or asking a coworker or a friend to set you up, you let your families meet first. Before any potential candidates are considered, families as a unit decide the values and characteristics that potential spouses should have so the couple have a satisfying life together. The closer you look at the world of modern arranged marriages, the clearer it is that things have changed-but only for some.Ĭontrary to popular belief, arranged marriages are not “forced marriages” in this modern day and age. In countries like Pakistan and India, where some estimate that 90 percent of marriages are arranged, the divorce rate is only 1 percent.Īre low divorce rates a sign that arranged marriages work? Or just a sign that those involved in them are also the type of people who are, for one reason or another, unlikely to file for divorce? In the U.S., while the divorce rate hovers around 40 or 50 percent, the divorce rate for arranged marriages is 4 percent. It’s estimated over half marriages worldwide are arranged-and that over 20 million of those unions exist in the world today, despite the fact that we almost never hear about arranged marriages without also hearing about the famously low divorce rates. Arranged marriages may seem like a relic of a bygone age, but they are still surprisingly popular around the world.
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