Education
Decisions, desires and diversity: marriage practices in Afghanistan
Marraige practices in Afghanistan
Authors:
D. Smith
Publisher:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit , 2009
There are many different ways in which marriages are decided on and practised in Afghan families. The institution of marriage is central to Afghan social life. This report addresses decision-making about marriage and marriage practices in Afghanistan. Based on the results of qualitative research carried out in the country the author discusses the decision making processes in relation to the marriages of a family’s children discusses common marriage practices, including exchange marriages (badal), bride price and polygamy.
The paper considers degrees of choice and force when decisions about marriages are made the effect of compliance with cultural norms on marriages and marriage decisions. The divergence between personal desires and perceptions of cultural norms and the links between violence in the family and particular marriage practices are also considered. The author argues that conceptualising marriages as ‘forced’ or ‘not forced’ is an oversimplification of the way in which many marriages are decided upon. Instead, it is proposed that the way people enter into marriages operates along a range from choice to force. While some marriages may fall at one or other of the extreme ends of this range, many others feature elements of both choice and force. Findings and recommendations include:
- boys and men who are forced into marriage may take out their frustration at the situation by acting violently toward their wives or by taking second wives
- much diversity was found among the ways in which decisions are made about marriages from family to family as well as from sibling to sibling within individual families
- organisations working to prevent violence against women in the family, in all its many forms, should work at least as closely with men as they do with women
- there is some evidence of constructive changes already occurring in the communities where the research was conducted, as a result of the relative political stability they have experienced in recent year.
