'My mother and I are married to the same man': matrilineal marriage in BangladeshWhen her widowed mother remarried, Parvin Rema, then 13, was part of the deal – one of several such arrangements in Bangladesh. Abigail Haworth talks to mothers and daughters about a particularly knotty relationship Abigail Haworth
The Observer, Sunday 2 June 2013
All in the family: Orola Dalbot (far right), and her three children with Noten (centre). Orola’s mother, Mittamoni (left) also has a son (standing behind her) and daughter with Noten. Photograph: Eric Rechsteiner for the Observer
As a child in rural Bangladesh, Orola Dalbot, 30, enjoyed growing up around her stepfather, Noten. Her father died when she was small, and her mother remarried soon after. Noten was handsome and energetic, with curly dark hair and a broad smile. "I thought my mother was lucky," Orola says when we meet in the dusty, sun-baked courtyard of her family home in the central forest region of Modhupur. "I hoped I'd find a husband like him one day." When she reached puberty, however, Orola learned the truth she least expected: she was already Noten's wife.
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=73244.0