How do their cultures inform Smita and Meena's relationships? If you are in a committed relationship, how do you think it would have been affected if it had begun in a different culture?

Smita and Meena both fall in love. How do their cultures inform their relationships: the level of intimacy, communication, decision-making for each woman? If you are in a committed relationship, how do you think it would have been affected if it had begun in a different culture?

I'm thinking more of the relationships Smita had in the United States in answering this question. Smita was free to date anyone, no matter his color, religion, education, or social status. She was free to have a casual, sexual relationship without damaging her marital prospects later in her life. Her relationships were up no her, not dictated by tradition or her father or brother. She could work outside the home and could end her relationship at any time.

Similarly, when she fell in love with Mohan, she did not need to talk to her father first. Her community in Brooklyn did not weigh in as to whether or not this was an acceptable match. Mohan and Smita will share the duties of raising Abru. Had Meena not chosen Abdul, her brother would have made the choice about who she would marry for her. Meena would have spent her days cooking, cleaning, and raising the children. I think Abdul really was a special man--his dreams for India included his wife, and he treated her as his equal more than his property.

Wonderful response, acstrine!

Building on the astute responses of acstrine and Joyce, I really can’t imagine being in an arranged marriage that assigns all authority to the husband. I’m divorced and was raised never to be dominated, so this affects my attitude. I’m sure I would have been unmarriageable in many cultures or perhaps abused in others.

I agree that ,acstrine! provided a thoughtful and insightful answer. I also feel Smita felt she had the legal and emotional right to marry whom she chooses because of the American cultural in which she was raised while Meena knew the consequences but married outside her religion and paid the consequences because she did not have a choice.

In my neighborhood where I grew up it was difficult and caused family trauma for a Protestant to marry a Catholic. But it didn’t get someone burned alive. We have come a long ways in 60 years.
The consequences were just so much more cruel for Meena.
In both setting, it takes courage to try and change the attitudes.