Symbolic Interactionst

2 Pages 402 Words

Is it Rape or is it Marriage
Many people from different places migrate to the US and with them they bring their culture. The dilemma is that what is right in their culture is wrong in the American culture. The US being a diverse society has to understand these “new immigrants” culture practices because they have lived and followed these practices for centuries. “Because human communication is composed of symbols that have arbitrary meanings and values” in every culture.
Islamic people, for centuries in their culture have been marrying off their daughters at the age of 13 and 14. The reason behind this is because it symbolizes that a girl becomes a woman when she passes through puberty. Also, the marriage between a man in his late 20’s and a 13-year-old girl is not seen as odd to them it’s just normal practice. So their marriage is valid because they haven’t broken any norms within their culture.
To American citizens marriage between a 13-year-old girl and a man in his late 20’s is seen as rape. The reasoning behind this is because according to the American culture a girl doesn’t become an adult until the age of 18 or older.
Now there is a major conflict between our two cultures because Islamists have moved away from their country to America. In 1996 a 39-year old father arranged for his two daughters of the age 13 and 14 to be married to two Iraqi men, ages 28 and 34. To them they were just practicing their own customs. Since they were in America and this is seen as rape the father was charged with child abuse, the mother with contributing to the delinquency of minors, and the husbands were charged with rape.
In another case a young Hmong man along with his friends went to a local college campus. There they picked up a girl that he selected to be his wife and took her back to his place where he had sex with her even though the girl didn’t want too. In the Hmong culture this is called “zij poj...