Anthropology: Marriage and family Essay

Submitted By rshafi
Words: 2567
Pages: 11

I was born in Bangladesh, and having to move out to a foreign country with unfamiliar faces was a sizable transition for me in life. It was even more challenging, since it was a time in my life when I started to look at life in a broad perspective. Even-though living here in Queens, New York, which has a pretty good Bengali-Muslim (an individual from Bangladesh – who submits to God) Community, I still felt distant. This transition had made me illiterate about my culture and the religion until recent years, where knowledge about my own culture and religion has become crucial for me. For my research paper, what I observed was an in-house private Bengali (people from Bangladesh) Islamic Marriage which lead to question How an Islamic Marriage is a ritual which leads to creating bonds? This paper suggests that an Islamic Marriage creates bonds, bringing out one another from their hectic schedule in life and to relieve oneself from the chaos that goes on in one's life by catching up with one-another in life.

Islam is an Arabic word which means peace and in religious sense, Islam is a monotheistic religion where one submits to the will of One God (Allah in Arabic) and obedience to His law. The one who submits to the will of God is known as a Muslim. Throughout, all my life Islam has been the foundation for everything, its a way life, and has been a driving force in my life. It's simple teachings of maintaining good relations with ones kith and kin, helps one to not sever relations and keep ones relations intact, and value family and friends in life. These simple teachings lets one to keep relations intact, which is very important in today’s times where its very common to see one to just go about their own way in life and not look back. It has become easier for one to just focus on oneself, with their busy schedules and not look back to family ties. It has become a norm here in the United States at least to leave ones parents house and to try becoming responsible. One may argue that there is no other its possible for an individual to become responsible. However, for me personally it has been factors like taking care of priorities like finishing up school, helping my family in ways like buying groceries for the family paying the small bills and so on and etc. This has taught me things which are beneficial for me in future when I'll have to pay all the bills, maintain a family and makes me aware of the responsibilities that I have take hold of in the near future. These are significant for me since a man is held in charge of the family , especially the matters lying outside the family (e.g. economical , disciplinary issues etc.). Whereas female is responsible for internal matters of a family (e.g. looking after home, bringing up of children etc.). Both have equal but unique responsibilities and position. The importance of relations and family ties leads to An Islamic Marriage and one of verses from the Quran (Holy Book for Muslims) which shows the significance of marriage is “And among his signs is this: He created for you spouses from yourselves that you might find rest in them, and He ordained between you love and mercy.” (30-21). An Islamic Marriage is similar to a Christian wedding in a sense that where a priest or an imam – (usually an Islamic religious leader or the one who leads prayers at a mosque and gives religious talk) recites parts from their respective holy books. An Islamic marriage is suppose to be simple even though folks nowadays spend money which is ay out of their capacity in order to be praised by one's community or is forced by peer pressure. This extra spending done by folks are usually to show their status in the community and distinguish themselves as to who they are in the community. Nowadays, its more about a matter of pride rather then whats the requirement. Folks in the Bengali-Muslim community go beyond the need and tend to indulge on unnecessary spending’s.

The event which I chose was