Racism itself shapes how British Muslims understand arranged-marriage membership

Evidence

In focus-group interviews with both young people and elders, researchers documented a general consensus in these communities that forcing young people into marriage was unacceptable, although the use of emotional and psychological pressure was. Women were very active enforcers of patriarchal norms. As well, the older generation saw transcontinental marriage as cultural rejuvenation, but increasingly recognized that arranged marriages without the full consent of their children were risky and unlikely to last. Although young people preferred linguistic and cultural compatibility, and wanted to marry someone from Britain rather than from their parents’ countries of origin, they identified increasingly as Muslim in terms of a social identity and did not express a position of wanting to stand outside of community, or outside of arranged marriages altogether. For both generations, the increasing racism directed at Muslims was an important factor in how they understood membership in community. Indeed, the researchers were openly confronted by their research subjects about the issue of arranged marriages being used to denigrate Muslim communities. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 324

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the MOC thread’s causal question: community members report that external racist denigration is itself a driver of their marriage practices and community cohesion, independent of any definitional dispute.