Arranged marriages

Many argue that arranged marriages are wrong, and should be banned in certain parts of the world. For centuries, it has been quite traditional for families to create arranged marriages for their children, until recently. There have been many heated debates to whether arranged marriages are morally correct and whether they should be accepted in our current society. So one might question, what is really so bad about arranged marriages.

In arranged marriages, one would be denied of his or her rights, and would not be able to have the freedom to choose who the individual wants to spend the rest of his or her life with. The individual would be married off to some stranger whom they might not even have seen in their entire life. They would not know whether their spouse is really right for them, as one would not even know the character and nature of the other party. It makes one very uncomfortable to live and spend his or her life with someone they are not very familiar with. It also upsets the individual as they may not necessarily grow to love the other person, and if they already love someone else in their life, they will feel very depressed and emotional.

Additionally, if the other individual is a nice and understanding person, then it is fine. However, this is not the case in most arranged marriages. As the individual does not know the nature of the opposite party, he or she would be very much vulnerable to any ugly side of the other person. There have also been cases of abuse, as the other party may not necessary understand the individual and treat the other as if he or she were property. Some of these couples may not also be on friendly terms with each other, leading to frequent arguments and even have extreme fights between them.

There has been a recent article on Reader's Digest April 2011 which shows how one 10-year old girl was married off to another family in Yemen. She was only 10 but was married off to some 30 year-old adult whom she neither liked or was familiar with. In exchange, her father was given some money, as the opposite family was quite rich compared to them. However, the parents were so engrossed in money and "family status" that they neglected the feelings of the daughter and is totally ignorant of the ordeal she went through. She was not only denied of her rights in doing so, but was also needlessly put through abuse by her older husband. Being a child, she was easily subjected to torture in the house without anyone else really coming to her help. This is just another example in everyday life that shows how ugly certain arranged marriages can turn out, especially if it is child marriage.

At the end of the day, the family members may think that organizing the arranged marriage was for the good of their children, as they have married off properly and need not need to worry about having no one to support them in the later parts of their lives. However, another factor to this is also due to their greed, greed for upholding "honour" in the family and maintain the family status. For this, their children have to go through needless pain and to suffer. To them, their family have done more harm than good.