Her thrillment and enjoyment of the party gradually faded off.

When she first entered the house, her mother gave her a big hug, she congratulated her with a smile “This is my girl, I m so proud of you my love, now you have become a real woman and ready to create your own family “May God send you a good man to love and cherish you”.

A few minutes later, she sat near her grandmother who said “You know Sarah, at your age I had four kids to raise. I don’t know what happens to this world, in our time, it was shameful for a woman to remain unmarried when she reaches her twenties! May God send you a good man to love and cherish you”.

Her mother friend said “No matter what a woman achieves in her study or career, she won’t be complete without a husband. May God send you a good man to love and cherish you”.

Suddenly the attention was pulled away from her as her cousin who has been recently married and just came from her honey moon entered the house. They all rushed to congratulate her on her marriage and asking about her honey moon and her husband.

After a short while, a second cousin of her announced that she is pregnant with her second baby and all of them got raged forgetting all about Sarah and her certificate that she worked hard to achieve for those long years!

It is all about marriage, marriage, marriage. Her certificate didn’t mean anything to them; it is just a ticket for the ultimate goal in their eye which is getting a husband!

This is a part of the novel I am writing “Social Pressure”, I have posted a summery of it beofore. People who didn’t read it can check it here.

Marriage has become a goal for nearly every young Jordanian girl. The possibility of not getting married has become a nighmare for many young girls. With all the restrictions and limitations that are imposed on women in our society, they become to dream of marriage not just as a mean to manifest their love for a man, but also to escape their fathers’ dominance, mothers’ nagging, friends’ gloating, and society pressure.

Many marry to men who they don’t even know just for the goal of marriage. Others give up on their living standards to get a husband. Some stays in a misrable marriage for not getting a divorce.

Women still can’t really stand up by their ownselves in the eyes of the society we are living in. They don’t take their full role untill they get a man in their side.

I presonally think that this is a real major problem we have. One that doesn’t just cause many failure marriages, wrecked houses, but also a scared generation of women who spend their youth fleeing of what we call the ghost of celibacy – Shabah el onoseh (in Arabic) -.