Should arranged marriages be outlawed?
Do you think that this type of marriage should be banned and that individuals should be able to choose more freely with whom they wish to get marry?
Yes!
Side Score: 17
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No!
Side Score: 5
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points
Yes, everyone should have the right to choose who they live their life with, and this law discourages that. I believe this law should be outlawed and thus marital rape statistics would decrease dramatically and all women around the globe would have the right to choose their partener. Side: Yes!
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point
1
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Arranged marriages are deeply ingrained in the cultural and religious traditions of many societies. Outlawing them could be seen as an infringement on cultural autonomy and religious freedom. Side: Yes!
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I don't know if there's a need for a specific law against arranged marriages. Marriage already requires the consent of the two partners involved. I guess there is a risk of minors being pushed into marriages when they are still too young to understand what is happening, or young adults and women thinking they'll have nowhere to go if their family rejects them. But how will you figure out if the marriage has been arranged in this sense? Will the courts perform thorough investigations of everybody's lives to determine that nobody had unduly influenced their decisions before validating marriages? I'd be inclined to support social programmes more than laws. Explain key concepts like the freedom of the individual to choose how they live, and explain how these concepts translate into everyday life. Empower women and children to reject dominating relatives by providing them with training, and emergency resources like shelters if necessary. Promote education in general, as domestic power imbalance is strongly linked to low education. Side: No!
In many traditional countries marriages are still being done in an arranged way where the parents seek the spouse and the child or children is (or are) expected to abide by their decisions. You will find this in many third world countries and countries with strong kinship traditional ties which still exists today. Minors being pushed into marriages is not just a risk, it is something that is already happening within society and if you google up on the topic, you will find endless results worldwide. As a matter of fact, i was looking at a documentary a few night ago where young women in South Africa or Kenya i believe as well as India are being pushed into child marriages by family members or even parents. One way i would recommend to deal with this problem is to create a social agency that all information relating to arranged marriage can be reported to and social workers or human rights advocates can respond to and fulfill the roles of investigators. Arranged marriages can have a negative impact on the economy, can involve rape, can result in the commission of crimes such as domestic abuse, murders, assaults and more and these consequences should be tend to. Creating laws that abolishes arranged marriages will help to ensure that the practice of arranged marriages are decreased and will help to deal with the problem rather than ignoring it. Also, i do support the social programs you have mentioned and i fully support you for that so i believe you deserve a vote up for that which i give you. Side: Yes!
Ah, yeah. I thought you were talking about banning arranged marriages in America, or some similar country where people generally believe in freedom to choose marriage partners and only a minority are still stuck in the old ways. I agree that in countries where arranged marriage is the norm rather than the exception, it could help to have a specific law against it. But laws alone will only do so much - take a look at laws against honour killing, which have rather limited effect because a lot of people don't think it's wrong, so they don't report it, and even when it's reported the police or courts often just brush it off. It'll still need to be coupled with education, which is the only way to really change a deep-rooted tradition. Side: Yes!
I typically don't advocate eastern practices, but there are a lot of asians where I currently live and so there tends to be a higher number of what is defined as arranged marriages taking place. What my view of arranged marriages used to be and what it is now has dramatically changed after actually being in the mix of it. They're not that bad. Most people partaking in arranged marriages have a completely different view to what us westerners have and tend to say it is the wiser choice. There also tends to be a false relation between arranged marriages and forced marriages, which should be taken into account. Side: No!
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