Marriage: Wanting vs Inheritance
After being defined by many philosophers and sociologists, I wonder if anyone has recently attempted to change or modify the definition of marriage in accordance with modernity.
Recently, the simpler people's lives are becoming, I feel like the more complex is marriage itself becoming.
From my own views and additional perspectives towards my surroundings, I perceived the more liberal both financially and socially we are becoming, somehow the less we are interested in marriage.
Also, aside from those, there are some extremely absurd religious, cultural, and traditional laws that are followed in marriage, which seems to be progressing from a "simple law/tradition" into a "concerning burden" for both parties (bride and groom).
There are economical conditions, career orientation, income and sources, skin color, race, caste, and many more parts are related to a marriage.
But the two major contexts, which are regning would be "Maher " and "dowry", I would say.
Dowry
After being defined by many philosophers and sociologists, I wonder if anyone has recently attempted to change or modify the definition of marriage in accordance with modernity.
Recently, the simpler people's lives are becoming, I feel like the more complex is marriage itself becoming.
From my own views and additional perspectives towards my surroundings, I perceived the more liberal both financially and socially we are becoming, somehow the less we are interested in marriage.
Also, aside from those, there are some extremely absurd religious, cultural, and traditional laws that are followed in marriage, which seems to be progressing from a "simple law/tradition" into a "concerning burden" for both parties (bride and groom).
There are economical conditions, career orientation, income and sources, skin color, race, caste, and many more parts are related to a marriage.
But the two major contexts, which are reigning would be "Maher" and "dowry", I would say.
And the same thing goes for dowry.
A gift in cash or jewelry was given to a bride by her family to maintain her independence after marriage because women were not entitled to an inheritance. Source
In this modern era, from what I have experienced from my geographical stance, that though dowry is not part of the religious law of the ISLAM and perhaps was started by HINDU religion in ancient times, still our religion adapted to this system rather more prominently. Islam has had a law for women's inheritance since the very beginning but for Hindu religion it was not the case, though as the era evolved to the modernity they are changing and expanding the rights for women yet lack in many sides.
However, if I exclude the little story of ancient times or Europe and English folks, to these days it is still highly practiced for dowry in the Indian subcontinent (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan).
Previously, these 3 countries used to be one province and later they became independent due to mostly religious issues.
India is a mostly Hindu-habituated country, while Bangladesh and Pakistan are Muslim-habituated countries. Though Bangladesh and Pakistan follow the same religion as the majority population, still due to huge cultural, traditional, and mostly language differences, eventually they parted as well, however, that is another story.
So basically unlike, "Maher", which is solely a part of the Islamic religion, "Dowry" is not really a part of any specific race as it seems.
That dowry is provided to the bride as a "gift" from the woman's paternal side for her to have some possession after she goes to in-laws, as supposed to be her independence and confidence for her personal usage.
Source
Yet, over time, just like the "Maher", instead of "gift to the woman" it has been conspired to convert into the "demand" or a kind of ransom to ensure the woman's happiness and often 'safety in the in-laws'!
How preposterous!
Even as women are these days, as competent and self-dependent they are, theoretically there should not be any need for the dowry! Yet, as unfortunate as it is, the practice has only changed its form to be aligned with the modern era.
Not only men but even women are being very reluctant of getting married because of these unnecessary combobulated absurdist traditions.
Indeed there was a time when marriage used to be a rather holy institution for society, country, and even a nation for its survival and upholding the root, but not anymore perhaps.
Too much burden and little desire is involved in it as time goes by, which is leading people to find a more convenient way to escape marriage and still be living without it.