Well said, sister

Last night, I was helping Mina (the cook's 16-year-old daughter) with her English homework.  (This was even though I didn't understand the homework, as the instructions could only be described as shithouse.)  She showed me a short essay she'd written about the dowry system.  I hope she hadn't copied it from anywhere, cos I thought the opening was great with an uncharacteristic display of passion.  Enjoy...

The dowry system is one of the most hateful practices of our country.  I could never agree with the dowry system.  It is a shame on Bangladesh.

And so it continued talking about the reasons why Mina thought it was such a "hateful" practice.  Pretty sobering subject matter, considering that Mina's father died about 7 years ago and her mother is now widowed with four children and barely 2 taka to rub together.  An arranged marriage is pretty much the only option for someone like Mina to help improve her family's situation, although she's not really a desirable wife as her family won't be able to come up with a good dowry.  Mina told me that she doesn't want to have to pay a dowry to her future husband.  She was pretty resigned to the fact that she would enter into an arranged marriage but reasonably happy that she would at least have some choice over when she would get married, as she wants to finish college and hopefully go to university first.

It really puts my own "problems" into perspective talking to Bangladeshis about stuff like this.  Makes me feel like a bloody princess for complaining that I can't meet anyone nice!