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Stop for one moment and imagine yourself in this situation. You are a 16 year old girl, born in the UK, educated in London, with high hopes to go on to University and make a career for yourself. You love Western pop music, have school-friends from all religions and cultures, and like to dance, go out shopping with your girlfriends and have fun like all normal teenagers do. Then one day your Father calls you in - it is time for you to be married he says, - an arranged marriage to a man twice your age from another country who you have never met, and you have no right to say "no" as this was arranged the day you were born, and refusing would bring "dishonour" to your family.

Sounds far-fetched doesn't it? And yet this scenario happens every day here in England, and in every other European country, where Asian immigrants have settled in large numbers, allowing their children to enjoy the advantages of a Western education and upbringing, and yet still clinging to an outdated tradition, that has no place in modern society. Maybe two hundred years ago in a small, rural village in India or Pakistan, it was a sensible tradition. Girls had no education and no chance in life, but to hope for marriage to a reliable, often older man, who would provide a roof over their heads in return for providing him with heirs. The families met and discussed their childrens' futures, and the pact was sealed.

But this is 2007, - women are not packages to be "bought and sold" and bartered between families. They are human beings with rights and feelings, and to force a loveless marriage on a girl who may not even want to marry, is surely an act of extreme cruelty? She may want to pursue a career first, perhaps she is still unsure of her own sexuality, or she may even already be in love with someone she has met and got to know over years through School or in her neighbourhood. So surely to force such an independent 21st century western woman into some outdated, 17th century Eastern tradition is wrong.

It is a sad fact of life that such arranged marriages still happen though. Every year school pupils of 16 or 17 here in England, are taken out of school for a month on the pretext of "visiting family or "exploring their roots". When they come back - if they come back, - they are married, and sometimes already pregnant. Of course some rebel, and that is why the ghastly phrase "honour killing" has come into the European vocabulary. Every year young women are killed by their own family members because they have refused to participate in an arranged marriage. The view seems to be that it's better that your child is dead then brings "dishonour" to the family.

So in conclusion, in my opinion arranged marriages are not a good tradition, and have no place in our 21st century world.

Learn more about this author, Rose Conrad.
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