Social media sees trend away from arranged marriages in town they were common
Arranged marriages have seen a sharp decrease in popularity among the Bradford Pakistani community in the past decade - with social media potentially a significant factor.
A study of 30,000 people in Bradford, Yorkshire, showed that in 2013, the percentage of children with parents who were first or second cousins - likely to have been partnered in an arranged marriage - was around 60 percent. But 10 years later, that number has seen a sharp decline to around 46 percent.
And it is believed a number of factors could be behind this social shift, including staying in education for longer, changes in immigration rules, and shifting family dynamics which are adjusting the traditions and perceptions of marriage in the community. Professor Neil Small suggests that social media has likely played a role in the decrease in arranged marriages, giving young people more opportunity to talk to and meet others.
As a result, young people are now more likely to go out and find their own partner than have an arranged marriage. Dr John Wright, chief investigator of the Born in Bradford study, said: "In just under a decade we've had a significant shift from cousin marriage being, in a sense, a majority activity to now being just about a minority activity."
Bradford has the second largest Pakistani Pashtun population after Birmingham with 139,553 residents (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Malika, a young woman, says social media has allowed the Bradford youth to have "contact with people outside our parent's eyes". Another young woman says the attitudes of the older generations had very noticeably shifted in the last years. She said that ten years ago, her mother was “adamant” that her children would have arranged marriages.
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“But now she doesn't focus on that,” the young woman said to the BBC. "I think families realised they couldn't control it. They knew that being in Britain, and being exposed to so many different viewpoints, it is going to change."
52-year-old teacher Juwayriya Ahmed married her cousin in 1988, and when her children asked them how they met, she said she was “laughing” at them. “I said I didn't really meet him. My parents took me to Pakistan and my dad said you're going to marry this person. And I sort of knew who he was, but the first time I met him properly was at the wedding," she says. "My kids said that was disgusting. And then they told me, 'Don't you dare make us do anything like this.'"
One teenager said of arranged cousin marriages: "People of our generation or even the generation above, don't see it as a very normal thing and we're grossed out by it. So I don't think I'd be willing to marry a cousin from back home.
Another added: "It's easier to meet new people nowadays. Say you were from a village in Pakistan, it was easier to meet someone there. But now in Bradford, you can meet so many different people, and you can still marry your people, but not someone you're related to."
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