Is it a marriage proposal or a beauty contest?

Beauty is valued 80% when it comes to cherry-picking a girl for marriage. May it be the boy himself or his family – both have the same views.

It seems that beauty is the only benchmark to judge girls for “rishta”.

In our Pakistani society, mothers tend to choose a life partner for their son who are highly attractive in all aspects and can be proudly “showcased” to the world. Mothers-in law always search for the prettiest girl for their son’s marriage to receive appreciation and decent comments in their social circle.

The question is - Is it a competition or one of the most important decisions of life?

Mothers-in law generally feel esteemed if their daughters-in-law are beautiful when introducing to the relatives and friends. They want them to wear expensive clothes, put on impeccable makeup and be “just picture-perfect”.

What we have failed to recognize is that there are many other significant things which need to be taken into account when judging the personality of an individual especially when it comes to a “girl”.

No doubt, personality attributes, habits, perspectives and life goals are equally important for a successful married life. Merely beauty is not everlasting and maybe a hindrance to happy life as beautiful girls tend to be proud also. 

Unfortunately, this is a great flaw in our society when it comes to marriage proposals. This reveals that Pakistani society has no good values, norms or culture.

So, for a dynamic society we need to get rid of the inspiration of having a competitive edge in the society with having the “most attractive” daughter-in-law and focus more over values, education, skills and abilities.