Asking Questions

Submitted by Jenny (United States), Feb 21, 2007 at 18:46

The thing is, I did ask questions. I researched about the religion both before and after the marriage. I was genuinely dedicated to learning as much as I could about his culture. I learned to speak, very badly of course, arabic. I thought I had all this knowledge but there are some things that I found out later.

For example the fact that if I were to have children with him they would automatically be raised Muslim. I guess this was a question that should have been brought up, honestly I thought that our children would embrace both or decide for themselves. You have to take into account I married my husband when I was young, just 19. He is 10 years older than I. The age difference in itself may account for some marital problems. His culture only adds to it.

I am not trying to say that Muslim men are bad. My husband is caring at times and very faithful. He is a good man. I just think that the cultural differences cannot be overlooked when you are deciding to marry a muslim. If you are extremley open and mostly liberal it might work out for you.

I do stand up for myself in my marriage by the way. Because of my Catholic upbringing I do not believe in divorce. We are working on our issues but it is so hard because of his culture and religion.

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