Welcome back to my blog and Happy New Year! As I narrow down my research on women in South Asia for my project, I decided to conduct a mini study of my own. As I have previously discussed in my book review, marriage is very important in South Asian communities. Girls are still considered as a burden in many parts of South Asia, where the only way to get rid of them, is to get them married. So I wanted to find out at what age women in my family got married at. For this “investigation”, Ii went to my mom, who provided me with the following information:
My Mom: 22
My Nani (grandma): 15
My Aunts: 18, 20, 21, 24, 23
My Dadi (other grandma): 16
My Cousins: 25,26, 28
From my mini investigation, I was amazed at the age my Nani and Dadi were married. At that age I had just started high school, meanwhile they were already married and having children. All my aunts and my mom married relatively young as well for American standards, but India today that just the ripe age to get married. On the other hand, men however in India get married in their 20s, 30s, or 40s, and no one ever questions it. If a male does not get married quickly after finishing their education, they are simply trying to build their careers, but if a woman was to do the same, she probably has something wrong with her.
Though most women don’t get married in their teenage years now, they still get married pretty young. Around this age here in the US, most women are working or getting graduate degrees to build their careers. The tradition of getting women to marriage quickly stops them from achieving their full potential.
Women in South Asia 