Hmmm I came across an article recently that puts a whammy on the modern dating and marriage scenario. Apparently in Kyrgyzstan the norm is that if you like a girl and want to marry her, you just kidnap her and take her home. Hmmm and here I was thinking gone were the days of the cavemen with their clubs who clubbed their mates and dragged them off, apparently not. More than half of Kyrgyzatan's married women were snatched off the streets by their husbands in a custom known as ala kachuu, which translates roughly as "grab and run". So how do they manage to keep the abductees from leaving besides marrying them? Well once a woman has been snatched and taken to her would be husband's home, her in-laws try to calm her down and get a white wedding shawl onto her head. (Imagine you're mom telling you, ahhh you've got a good one this time, hold her down while I get the shawl, hmmm) The shawl called a jooluk, is a symbol of the abductees submission. 80% of the abductees eventually give in, often at the urging of their own parents, who have been summoned to make their daughters stay. Makes you think of the culture when you have old Kyrgyz sayings like "Every good marriage begins in tears". The custom is deemed practical although it is illegal, most people don't know its illegal (hmm I wonder why?) Families use force to keep the abducted women from leaving by resorting to force or threatening them with curses which seem to have a powerful impact in this superstitious land. (Wonder what the divorce rate is like, practically nil perhaps). Putting bread on the doorstep or having an elderly woman from the family lie across the threshold are some of the ways they keep the abductees from leaving. Its a life time of bad luck to step over either. Hmmm imagine you calling your grandma out "Hey granma, its time for you to sleep outside the doorway"(wonder why the brides never used the windows) either way the abductees are tainted for life if they leave with their virginity suspect and her name disgraced, she'd find it difficult to attract another husband. So I guess another saying that would go well in this culture would be "If you can't beat them, join them"

xaries posted at 2:12 PM