Arranged marriage
marital union organized by parties other than the couple
An arranged marriage is a marriage where the spouses are selected by a third party. The third party is most commonly the spouses' parents, possibly with the aid of a marriage broker.
Normally, the couple agree to the arranged marriage. However, in a forced marriage, one or both of the partners does not consent; and in a child marriage, one or both partners cannot consent because they are under 18 years old. Marriages without consent are condemned by the United Nations.
Arranging marriages has historically been common in many cultures and religious traditions. It remains widespread in certain regions, particularly South Asia, West Asia and North Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. In other parts of the world, such as Europe and East Asia, the practice has declined substantially since the 19th century.
History
Arranged marriages were the norm throughout the world until the 18th century. Typically, marriages were arranged by parents, grandparents or other close relatives and trusted friends.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Arranged marriage” is marital union organized by parties other than the couple. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Arranged, marriage and marital, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1923231. The Library of Congress control number is sh98004366. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Arranged marriage” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.