Interfaith marriage is one of the rarest topics seen in Bangladesh till now. However, this is not the rarest incident here. Presently interfaith marriage is taking place more frequently than before. Interfaith marriage is lawful in Bangladesh but these laws are hardly practiced by the people of the society. As a result, the couples of interfaith marriages undergo various legal complications concerning the legitimacy of children, inheritance, adaptation, right of maintenance, etc. I am going to disclose many social, traditional, and religious perspectives behind the untold law of the society in Bangladesh. The non-supportive society not only makes them suffer but also create many troubles in their daily life. So the couple has to go through this miserable situation which leads them to depression, low self-esteem, psychological distress, etc.
Bangladesh is a conservative culture-oriented country where people of the country cannot easily accept any unusual events in their routine life. Though freedom of marriage is one of the imperative human rights, this right cannot happen smoothly within religious traditions in Bangladesh.
Marriage is a socially or ritually acknowledged merger governed by a state, a union, or a religious authority. There are very rituals and laws concerning marriage liable on religions. From the beginning, it seemed to highlight a single religion-based family over family based on pluralistic religions. In some regards the traditional culture, religious laws forbid interfaith marriage especially for Hindu and Muslim in Bangladesh.
According to Universal Statement of Human Rights, 1948
Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality, or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution (𝐴𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒 − 16).
When a person, earlier acknowledging a different religion, changes his/her religion and converted to the religion of his/her partner beforehand marriage, the after-conversion marriage is not an interfaith marriage. Interfaith marriage is stated to mean a marriage between two persons from two different religions and traditions as well.
An interfaith marriage neither socially established nor the couples are welcomed either Hindu or Muslim family in Bangladesh. Here a Muslim woman or man is not permitted to marry a Non-Muslim person. In Bangladesh, the interfaith marriage between Hindu and Muslim is documented under the Special Marriage Act, 1872.
People of Bangladesh cannot come out from their traditional views to accept the special marriage. As they are not willing to change their thoughts, social rules, and conservative look. Although they hardly accept it, such marriages are not insignificant in number either. But married couples indeed have to suffer from different inherent difficulties by family and society as well.
If we think deeply about the reasons behind religious oppositions regarding interfaith marriage, we may perhaps find issues like a religious command, strategic provision, and fear of contamination of belief by exogenous fundamentals, etc. Legal barriers for an interfaith married couple in Bangladesh arise from two fronts. On the one hand, following religious instructions, traditional special laws reject its validity. And the other hand, the special laws made for helping such marriages are unsatisfactory to protect their rights and interests in society.
In some cases, it seems difficult for families to compromise with their traditional culture which is followed by generation to generation. So it becomes tough to admit an exceptional event like interfaith marriage by a conservative religious country like Bangladesh. If the Special Marriages Act, 1872 is revised by describing all marital rights and duties of an interfaith married couple and eliminating all the uncertainties in the Act, then it can defend those couple from unnecessary legal prohibitions, depressions, and miseries. However law cannot guarantee human happiness, it can eradicate some of the human distresses. In a secular society, each person has a right to live, love, and marry someone s/he wishes; and it is the responsibility of the state to ensure fullest legal protection to everyone within its jurisdiction.
An interfaith marriage is historicity or fact of life across the globe. With the ever-expanding liberal views and modernization, the number of such marriages is growing very fast. The travel in time between tradition and modernity has been generated through migration and the power of technology. In Bangladesh, the number of interfaith marriages is very significant as well. Interfaith married couples can be found in the neighborhood, among relatives or friends. But people in Bangladesh still want traditional marriages despite being globalized. It is still perceived as distracting the custom due to the probable destruction caused so that it could lead to stigmatization. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. (Kamruzzaman, 2016, pp. 44–51).
Marriage is the norm or values to date and is restricted by different customs, rituals, cultural beliefs, religious bindings, political or societal affiliations, and certain rules and regulations which is maintained by the social institution. Religion has a far deeper and wider effect on how you live your life, how you think, how you observe others etc. The challenges of interfaith couples are consequently a lot more complex, running a lot deeper. In particular, Article 18 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights of 1948 provides that
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.
Marriages between people from altered religions are precisely documented in Bangladeshi law under the Special Marriage Act no 3 of 1872 and such marriages are readily accepted in Bangladesh (Kamruzzaman, 2016, pp. 44–51). But this is hardly followed in Bangladesh. From the Bangladesh Constitution, 1972
Every citizen has the right to profess, practice, or propagate any religion (𝐴𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒 41).
Such a law is made to assist, and not to hinder the interfaith married couples. But in reality, the age-old Special Marriages Act of 1872 though might be suitable according to the situations of the time it was passed; it has lost its respectability since the world has changed rapidly. For religious and social conservatives still, interfaith marriage is treated as Cultural-lag by society. Interfaith can create different problems in lifestyle but it is not restricted to religion. The interfaith marriage causes serious victimization in the society more. The nature of oppression depends on the couple’s social class, suburban areas, ages, and educational qualifications. It is most noticeable in lower socio-economic society. But the upper-class or educated people of the society also don’t have very warm thoughts or open-minded views about the marriage. Interfaith couples have to go through many ups and downs in their life to get social acceptance. They sometimes encounter different non-violent harassment from their relatives or peer. Some people of the society are concerned that interfaith couples and their children are going to lack something very valuable norms and values, or the system that they will put together their pick and mix trust system, or even end up with no faith at all. If the interfaith married couples are not economically independent, their social lives may be particularly hazardous. This social unacceptance has its origins again in the religious disapproval of such marriages.
I took a brief interview with a person who recently got married through the Special Marriage Act 1872. I asked them how they convince their family for the marriage. He stated that as both of them were independent, they didn’t involve any other to handle the situation on behalf of them. Therefore, they tried by themselves to make their family understand them and gradually their family becomes convinced though they disagreed at the beginning. I also asked for a comparison of the interfaith marriage system of Bangladesh with the global situation to him. He said,
As an analogy, I would say interfaith marriages’ struggle in Bangladesh is at a stage that is similar to the acceptance level of same-sex marriage in the more developed world. Also, the clause in the act that requires the participants to forget any claim to inheritance is a big hindrance to the appeal of the act. (Personal Communication, November 21, 2017).
Not only in Bangladesh but also all over the world, the bipolarity of the conservative-liberal paradigm is widening. We are more divisive in many matters now, including how society thinks on should choose one’s partner. However, acceptance of inter-religious marriages is perhaps still a difficult issue for even the liberal inclined minds in Bangladesh. To ensure harmony in society and avoid any unethical destruction, the laws of Bangladesh should go through massive changes for being able to cope with the needs of current demands as well.
I personally conducted a survey to investigate the influence of conservative culture on accepting interfaith marriage in Bangladesh. The survey conducted by a group of 82 people of whom there were males and females. I asked people about the reasons behind considering interfaith marriage as taboo. It was a general question about the reason behind the non-acceptance of interfaith marriage in the society. Approximately 63.4% of them said religious views, 18.3% reported conservative thoughts, 11% said social barriers, and rest 7.3% thinks cultural norms and values.
It shows that religious view is the main reason as Bangladesh is a very religious one. Conservative thoughts are another main reason behind considering interfaith marriage as a taboo because the people of Bangladesh are very conservative-minded. Social barriers are another crucial reason for the disapproval of special marriage. As by tradition, marriage is one of the oldest rituals of Bangladesh. So cultural norms and values influence the decision of the people most.
My second queries about what are the consequences faced by the interfaith married couples? The response was that 12 Out of 82 people said social challenges, 11 people said lack of family support, only 1 among 82 people think emotional problems, and 58 out of 82 people went for all of the options above.
Generally, interfaith married couples of the society don’t get any support and for that, they have to face many social challenges. As we, people are social beings. So for living in this society, we need to obey some social rules that we cannot break according to the choice. For that when someone goes against the rules and thinks like open-minded people, they have to face different obstacles in their daily life.
My third question is related to the factor that influences more about the negative mentality towards interfaith marriage. 56% of people reported religion as the most influential factor, 29% think conservativeness of the society, another 11% said traditional marriage system, and rest 4% think other reasons are also responsible for the influence.
The next question queries about why did the Special Marriage Act fail to convince the society? The response was that 56.1% people said most of the people want to think according to the religious norms, 18.3% said people prefer traditional rules more, 14.6% said most of the people have a protective mentality, 11% reported that people want to avoid social conflicts. Religious views are the main obstruction to succeed in the Special Marriage Act. To avoid the social conflicts people like to support the traditional rules more and the defensive mentality towards modernization concludes the failure of the act.
I asked people how do they think maximum interfaith marriage end-up as a single religious family. Where 52 people support the statement, 21 people refused to agree with it and the rest of the people think other lifestyles can be chosen by the interfaith married couple.
Then I asked people to clarify their opinion. They shared different sentiments as one stated,
In the traditional social system where interfaith marriage itself a great taboo, here maintaining two religion in a single-family become more challenging, and also at the same time people of Bangladesh are not that much open-minded to welcome it.
Other person think,
If there is already one interfaith marriage in the family or among relatives, it is easy to convince the family members for accepting this kind of marriage.
And another person specified,
I think interfaith and marriage two different things, when two people from different religion tie a knot that’s the freedom of choice but after marriage, they tried to respect each other but at the same, if they noticed their perception and reality didn’t match or lack of compromise happens between
two maybe at that time their relation end-up.
So people define their feeling about interfaith marriage according to their own justifications.
The last question of my survey queries about what kinds of initiative can be taken to change the mentality of the society? An equal percentage of people 46.3% stated that by educating them about human rights, by adopting modernization is reported by 18.3%, another 35.4% think that by changing the traditional views. Information from this question shows, interfaith marriage could be accepted in the society if it is possible to change the traditional thoughts. As the society is dominating one, their dominant mentality can be changed by educating them about human rights. By adopting modernization the suffering of the interfaith married can be reduced as well.
It can be clearly stated that in the society, the interfaith marriage is not still an easily acceptable phenomenon and the incident is greatly influenced by religious views rather than conservative thoughts. Around 70.07% of people think, it malpractice against the religion and thus they are not willing to convert their traditional judgments. It is also shown that due to religious opposition, people used to show negative mentality towards interfaith married couples, and that brings a lot of obstacles like harassment, social unacceptance, and mental pressure in their routine life. As they do not get any kind of support from their family or friends. So they generally face many ups and downs in their daily life for maintaining responsibilities all alone. According to the religious mindset of the society, interfaith marriage is a forbidden and hindered work and in the long run, must hellish sufferings as well.
Freedom of thought is a vital human right. In this sense, interfaith marriage is also a human right under any national and international circumstances. Nowadays in developed countries, interfaith marriage is common, but a developing country like Bangladesh, it is still a challenge to survive with many social obstacles. The law introduced by Bangladesh’s constitution named Special Marriage Act 1872 is a pioneering act which facilitates marriage between two people from different religious communities. But the religious judgments, conservative thoughts, etc. of the society appeared as great troubles to the interfaith couples. It is even now considered as anti-social, punitive, unscriptural work that is prohibited by society. But the prohibition is totally contradictory to universal human rights. As it is the right of every human to get married and having a family according to their freedom of choice regardless of religious considerations. Though the interfaith marriage is no longer an unfamiliar incident in the society, there are a variety of challenges that couples might face in the pursuit of a happy marital life.