Re: Forced marriages & siblings
its totally wrong and just because parents believe its in their kids best interests, it doesn't automatically make it so. if they loved their kids and really wanted what was best, they would sit their kids down, explain their logic, listen to their kids objections and then see if their decision was making their daughter/son truly unhappy. and if it did, they wouldnt just storm off or force the issue, they'd call it off. i've seen this firsthand. someone very close to me was pushed into an engagement at 16. she is a very, very goodlooking girl and her folks were petrified she'd become "bad" if she wasn't married, plus she was getting tons of rishtas. this is what happened- she said yes despite not wanting to but out of a feeling of, i can't let my parent down even though she hated the guy and wouldn't even let him hold her hand at the engagement, ended up cutting school, smoking, drinking, acting out, failing several classes, and finally threatened to kill herself in front of her parents one morning. she felt like once she was married at 17, her life would be over. she'd be stuck in small town america in the middle of nowhere with nothing but community college and kids to look foward to (nothing wrong with those things, but you know, from a 16 year old's perspective, not the best kind of future). it was horrific. it was traumatic. and it was absolutely WRONG. it took her, and her family, years to get over it. she's still paying the price for it academically. her parents are soooo sorry now and regret it so much, but you know, you can't change things once they've happened.
so parents shouldnt do something so stupid, especially if they claim they know your kids better than the kids know themselves.
p.s: her parents are usually really nice, logical, lovely people, and i truly think they just made a BIG mistake.