Fifty Million Rising by Saadia Zahidi

Fifty Million Rising by Saadia Zahidi

Author:Saadia Zahidi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2018-01-30T05:00:00+00:00


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Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries are not the only Muslim countries that have undergone major transformations in marriage practices. Decisions about marriage, divorce, and staying single are wholly different for educated millennials throughout the Muslim world compared to their parents. Perhaps the most visible manifestation of this change is the premium now placed on education in the marriage market. From Kazakhstan to Morocco, higher education is now a prized attribute in a spouse. It already was for prospective grooms, as a marker of their earning capacity and ability to support their family. But it has now become a marker of prestige for prospective brides too.

Marriage used to be the only avenue for social mobility for women—a woman could move up (or down) in social class only by marriage. In this context, beauty, family background, youth, deference to male authority, and a pliable personality were the main features that enabled women to make a “good match.” Education has now become a key lever of social mobility for women, in large part because of the new employment opportunities it generates but also because of the opportunities it now offers in the marriage marketplace.

In Islamabad, Rehana and Sania are both top-ranked students in the final year of their MBBS degree, the bachelor of medicine/bachelor of surgery degree offered in the British-derived education system in Pakistan. The next six students on the honors list are also women. But Rehana and Sania are very different—both in their reasons for being there and in their future outlook.

When asked whether she’ll specialize or become a general practitioner, Rehana smiled shyly and said, “My parents will decide.” That was a euphemism for “it depends on when my parents arrange a marriage for me.” Today many urban families encourage girls to excel in their studies, first to get one of the coveted spots in medical college and then while they are working toward their degrees. In the past, families didn’t want their sons’ future wives to be educated. They believed that such daughters-in-law would be harder to control in the home, and in particular they didn’t want young women who had interacted with men on a university campus. Now, having a more educated daughter-in-law is a mark of prestige and enlightenment, among urban families in particular, and many families recognize that their grandchildren will have a brighter future with an educated mother. After they graduate, medical students are in particularly high demand by potential suitors—or rather by their families. Word-of-mouth searches and local newspapers carry ads with some variation of: “Respectable family searching for fair lady doctor from decent family for son in civil service.” Twenty years ago, these ads wouldn’t have specified a woman with higher education. Even as archaic ideas around skin color still linger, there is a new desire for educated daughters-in-law.

The advantages of being educated gave Rehana’s family an incentive to send her to medical school—in pursuit of a better match. She is not likely to work once she is married. In



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