The Absence of Autonomy and Agency on Young Women amongst the South Asian and MENA Diaspora in Modern-Day Arranged Marriages

In the West, marriage is conceptualized as a union between two individuals based on a mutual sense of love, affection, commitment, and attraction that is driven by finding the “right” person, and usually involves a period of courtship before settling down, with or without the explicit consent of members other than the parties involved. On the other hand, the institution of arranged marriages—wherein family members or community elders select a prospective groom for a young bride, and vice versa, based on factors like caste, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, etc.—has remained intact in several developing nations, though it has declined substantially during the 19th and 20th centuries. However, Britain prevails to this day as one of the few contemporary countries in the Western world in which both the institutions of arranged and forced marriages continue to take place, particularly and almost exclusively within the South Asian and the MENA context (Ballard, 1978). Forced marriages, by definition, are characterized by the union of two parties that marry for a host of reasons—whether out of convenience, coercion, or honor—and are defined by either one or both parties’ lack of will and informed consent (Gangoli et al., 2011). While the broader practice remains prevalent to this day in several developing nations in Southeast Asia and parts of the Middle East, it has since declined substantially during the 19th and 20th centuries (Gupta, 1976).