[OPINION] Arranged Marriage

      I felt weird when I first learned about “arranged marriage”. I had this awkward feeling because I got the idea of it is an act of being “forced” to marry someone whom you may or may not even know very well yet. Such are commenced by the parents, sometimes an elderly in the family or a trusted third-party. But mostly, it is arranged by the parents. During my research, I have read some articles about “Arranged Marriage”. And I found out that there are some good and bad points in an “arranged marriage”.

   One of the advantages of an arranged marriage is that the parents might have chosen a perfect spouse for you. With arranged marriages, chances are the person is perfect and fault-free because the family and relatives know what they are like and they are revealed right away and that is completely required. Some say that arrange marriage is good for the parents who favoured arranged marriages believe that they are more experienced and objective than their children. They will be able to make better, less impulsive choices regarding a compatible and often financially supportive mate than their child will. It is also said that couples that are in arranged marriages have more extended periods of being in love than partners who choose their own mates. Therefore some parents insist on to arranging marriage for their child.

     But then, where are our voices? Our rights? That’s one of the questions of some people who learned and know about arranged marriage. In essence, an arranged marriage only serves to take these things away from us. The child should really like the person he/she is going to marry and not just the ideal of what someone else wants them to have. They have their own right to choose who they want to marry.

“Arranged marriages are a very sad part of life. How can you get into a thing called marriage without understanding who you want to spend the rest of your life with?”

   My opinion about this is that parents should let their children choose their own partner. Despite all of this argumentative, I think the child have rights to think of their own. Parents should only be guiding them and not be forcing the child to marry someone they don’t like or know. And I do believe that it is the responsibility of the parents to teach their child on how they should choose properly on whom to marry. Everything just reflects on how the parents taught their children. Isn't it also taught in school? It is in the form of a subject called ‘Values Education’ where it tackles about the correct way of thinking and acting in accord to the people around us. The subject is an academic term used to refer to the process of instilling values to students. It is just a matter of common sense! But in some cases, or like in other countries; if both parents and the child agree on to this, then it is okay to do so. Sometimes, it all depends on the people anyway.