I live in a country where there are lots of cultural norms because we are all not from the same backgrounds or from the same city.
There was a time I heard about one culture from an Igbo friend of mine. We were talking, and she said, "In her city there was a culture; once a lady is married, she can't have a male friend, and she can't cheat on her husband; if not, she would die or her husband would die.".
I still don't get why a married woman would cheat; that's a cultural norm that I like and support because it is not a good thing for a woman to have an extra marital affair.
the image belongs to me
We also have it in my culture that a woman must never have anything to do with any other man, aside from business. I believe that is a normal culture that anyone can see everywhere, and it can be found online as well, which I personally support.
But there was this culture in my place that is very bad and not fare to abide with. I don't like the culture for anything because once the culture is implemented on someone, it doesn't matter if the person is happy or sad; such a person just has to live with whatever the culture brings.
It is said that once a man dies, his junior brother, elder brother, or any man in the man's family has to take over everything the man leaves behind, including his wife and children.
Who does that? Why would someone be forced to remarry her husband's brother? They can take everything the man left for all I care, but the wife and the children shouldn't be treated like a piece of furniture in the house that anyone can just inherit.
Well, this same culture was imposed on my mom when my dad died. Meanwhile, my dad happens to be the only child of his parents, so his younger brother from the family stood up to marry my mom by force.
Such a culture can make people kill themselves in the family if care is not taken, because the junior brother might like his elder brother's wife, so for that reason he would kill his brother to have his wife.
To cut a long story short, my mom refused because she had vowed never to lay with another man except her husband. The family took all my dad's property from her and gave it to my dad's younger brother so that my mom could agree to whatever they wanted.
the image belongs to me
But my mom took us and ran away instead of remarrying her husband's younger brother. I love what she did because if she had agreed, my dad's younger brother only wanted the property, and along the line, the family would eventually take us away from my mom, so to prevent that from happening, she left all the properties and took us with her.
Aside from the bad side of the culture norms, I don't like the fact that they force people to marry someone they don't like, so the culture norms in my city are not what I am a fan of, even though you can find them anywhere, and I am sure most families no longer implement such things again. Because they are only making the situation worse for the woman instead of helping her.