Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/08/02

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Subject: OT now, Was: [Leica] Piercings and Tatoos
From: nathan.wajsman at planet.nl (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Tue Aug 2 22:54:01 2005
References: <3380536.1123019089707.JavaMail.root@wamui-muscovy.atl.sa.earthlink.net>

OK, since I started this discussion...

I guess arranged marriages come in various shapes. On the benign end of 
the scale are the ones where the families agree to the deal but the 
woman has a say in the selection and the ultimate veto power. But then 
there are also the cases where the girl (because in many cases we are 
talking about quite young girls) is simply told that she is to marry 
this man, and that's that. Like in the novel "Brick Lane" by Monica Ali. 
Perhaps a better term for what I was talking about is "forced marriage" 
rather than "arranged marriage". Forced marriages are common in certain 
cultures, and while they obviously do not involve the kind of immediate 
physical violence that female circumcision does, they are equally 
harmful to the woman. I maintain that the two practices are morally 
comparable and that both are incompatible with a free society.

As for the argument that Western marriages often end in divorce while 
arranged ones do not, so what? A high divorce rate is not in itself a 
terrible thing. In fact, in countries (like Sweden) where women have 
made the most progress in terms of equal rights, the divorce rate tends 
to be quite high. All this shows is that in those countries a woman has 
the freedom to get out of a failed marriage and has a fair shot at not 
ending up in poverty as a divorcee. Countries where arranged/forced 
marriage is common also tend to be societies where a divorced woman is a 
social  outcast and where economic opportunities for women are 
limited--no wonder the divorce rate is low!

And this is not an attack on members of the list who live in arranged 
marriages. But let me respectfully suggest that there is some 
self-selection going on here. By definition, people who participate here 
are intelligent, well-educated, good-looking and have exquisite taste in 
camera equipment. We do not have many peasants from rural Anatolia on 
this list, I am sure.

Nathan


Douglas Herr wrote:

> B.D., how is an arranged marriage discriminatory against the woman?  Isn't 
> the man equally involved, and doesn't he have obligations toward the woman?
> 
> Doug Herr
> Birdman of Sacramento
> http://www.wildlightphoto.com
> 

-- 
Nathan Wajsman
Almere, The Netherlands

General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com
Seville photography: http://www.fotosevilla.com
Stock photography: http://www.alamy.com/search-results.asp?qt=wajsman
http://myloupe.com/home/found_photographer.php?photographer=507
Prints for sale: http://www.photodeluge.com



Replies: Reply from abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge) (OT now, Was: [Leica] Piercings and Tatoos)
In reply to: Message from telyt at earthlink.net (Douglas Herr) (OT now, Was: [Leica] Piercings and Tatoos)