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| Image: http://www.rebelliousarabgirl.net/ |
Different mentalities, different personalities, different ages, different countries, different religious groups, different social settings...
I guess I just got carried away
Where were you carried to?
I am not really sure.
Something happened but what was it
Do you like Jewish music? How about Russian music? American pop? You sure?
It’s funny—people think that I grew up in one place, was educated in another, and that in essence I am an altogether different person.
And the truth is: I am all of those things. I cannot negate one part of my background or of my education. I am some complicated compilation of the most various mentalities, cultural settings, approaches to education, religion and relationships. And although there are parts of my life which I wish would not have affected me, I am a product of my experiences. And in some way, I am and desire a bit of everything I have ever lived through in my life.
I have or used to have this assumption that the more western approach where couples date for a solid period of time before making a commitment was the correct approach. Arranged marriages are practically synonymous with forced marriages.
I was raised in a culture where it was not uncommon for the following scenarios to occur:
A man told his son: you are X years old. You should be married. Enough fooling around. The next girl you go out with, you marry. He did marry the next girl he went out with and he seems to have a beautiful family.
Or a mother found a girl that would be appropriate for her son who kept on dating and not finding his soul mate. She made sure that they spent enough time together, until the guy noticed the girl and took her out. After they were dating for while he knew that he liked her. He was not sure though.
So the mother arranged his engagement without him knowing. And once he was engaged, he felt uncomfortable breaking the engagement. To make a long story short, he is married today, they are an adorable and happy couple and he thanks his mother every single day for making him take that step.
It sounds foreign, but I do not know if it is always so off. Here watching people go out endlessly without commitment, fight and then get married to have ordinary marriages most of the time.
Why should one be better than the other?
