As I was reading Uma Narayan's essay "Contesting Cultures: Westernization, Respect for Cultures, and Third World Feminists", one part struck me particularly. Narayan details how arranged marriages between barely teenage girls and older men were normal when her grandmother was growing up, but, in contrast, her mother was married at 21. However, it has again become common for some areas in India to arrange marriages for young girls to much older men. In the case Narayan mentions, it was a 63 year old man who had paid for this young girl to be his wife and was taking her back to his country (232). The incident, in many ways, reminds me of a podcast I listened to over the summer which detailed the surrogate mother industry overtaking many impoverished communities in India.
The podcast, produced by Radiolab, details the story of two gay Israeli men who, while looking for a surrogate, stumbled upon a company in India that promised a baby for them in 9 months at a rate much cheaper than they would find in Israel (it's also illegal for gay men to hire a surrogate in their country) or in the United States. However, they assumed the surrogate would be paid the amount that they were told she would be paid. This didn't happen, and an investigation discovered many disturbing issues with the surrogacy industry in India, including mistreatment, deception, and human trafficking. In cases of twins or triplets, the fate of the "extra" child[ren] is often unknown. Vice News also did a segment on commercial surrogacy in India, however, I don't have access to link it as Vice News is produced by HBO which requires a subscription. In the segment, one startling moment occurs in which the reporter, pretending to be an interested customer, meets with a representative of a surrogacy company at a restaurant in India. The representative brings along a young child to the dinner and offers to sell it to the reporter right there without questions or paperwork.
Much like the arranged marriages in which impoverished families are forced to sell their daughters to provide for themselves or their communities, the lucrative business of surrogacy preys on those living in nations in the Global South, while benefitting those with the means and privilege to not face such struggles in their own nations. There have been talks of banning commercial surrogacy in India in recent years.
I would really enjoy listening to this podcast that you mentioned above. I can't imagine what some of these women go through with arranged marriages. As we discussed in class if a woman wants to stray away from marriage they are seen as disrespectful to their culture, or traditions, but it is not. Men in countries such as India can do many things that women cannot which is known as selective labeling.
ReplyDeleteAfter I read this post, I researched more on arranged marriages and found an article from an Indian feminist website. The article shows an ad in the Indian newspaper "The Hindu", where a 37 year old man is looking for a bride under the age of 26, and other very specific requirements, including that his bride must be a non-feminist. The fact that the writer of this ad says "the bride" shows the ad isn't intended for the woman herself, but the people the writer considers to be her owners. A student who requested to remain anonymous replied to this ad calling out its obvious sexism and received a violent and threatening email in response. As mentioned in the article, the gruesome language in the email could show the man's intentions for his "bride" and an indication of how she will be treated by the man. Although this isn't a child being forced into a marriage, the idea of a woman being "given" to the writer of this ad is a scary thought, considering he is asking for an attractive, younger woman who is a good cook to become his property.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to the article, but as a warning, there are very detailed descriptions of rape and murder. https://feminisminindia.com/2018/09/11/rape-threats-sexist-matrimonial-ad/