Divorce
Enam and Katia talk about divorce in their countries.
Katia: So, Enam, we’re talking about arranged marriages, but what about the rate of divorce of arranged marriages? Is it high?
Enam: Well, actually, the rate is incredibly low. Actually, it’s below ten percent and it’s changing but still it’s really low and the reason I think is because the culture in Bangladesh…in that kind of culture, boys and girls are like grown-up in different ways, and they don’t really see each other that closely, and that’s why when you are married with a person, you start to know that person after different…opposite gender…quite well and that helps develop an understanding and they both…both of them try to understand each other – their values – and in the cultural background it’s normally decided that they have to be together normally without exception for the rest of their lives, so they just try to work in that way.
Do you have a higher divorce rate in your country?
Katia: Actually, unfortunately it is increasing. I really don’t know the percentage but when I was young, if somebody of my friends parents would get a divorce that would be very shocking to hear. It wasn’t common. But now, a lot of my friends actually are going though divorce or their parents have divorced, which it wasn’t common but now it seems a little bit more common, so unfortunately things are changing in Mexico.
Enam: Why do you think that the divorce rate is going up? What could be the reason behind this?
Katia: I think it’s very hard to say but I think there are various reasons. For example, women didn’t used to work. They used to stay home and take care of the house, the husband, the children, but now women have become more independent. They have been able to make different decisions that before they didn’t have to, so I think the independence of the women has changed things and perhaps the culture itself, the cultureof marriage and divorce, it has changed also so I think possibly those two reasons.
