Shopping for Brides

In Syria ladies are in charge of making the initial contact for potential matches. Some lady called me up today to ask about my daughter, or daughters, if I had more than one, who was in the marriage market.

This is not the strange part. People hear from friends or neighbors that such-and-so family has a daughter who is of marriageable age, and mom’s with sons looking to get married start calling to set up visits. It is usually a system that works well and ensures that people weigh and consider the truly important things in a potential spouse, along with things like chemistry and attractiveness and “the cool factor”.

The strange part is that this lady called me today out of the blue – I have no idea where she got my name – and after introducing herself proceeded to ask if my daughter was tall! When I told her that she was wonderfully petite, she didn’t skip a beat. “So what about your other daughter?” I reiterated that I only had one daughter who was even of the age to be “available” (although even she is not looking for a guy), so she asked exactly how tall she was. When I told her, she asked how tall I was, as if to determine where this rogue short gene came from! When I assured her I was also short and so was my husband, she spoke to her son in the background, without even bothering to cover the phone, and asked exactly how short he was willing to go on his wife’s height. He mumbled something I couldn’t hear and then she came back explaining that her son is six foot one, so he needs a tall wife.

Then she asked about her eye color!

If that ever happens again I’m going to say, “I’m sorry, my daughter doesn’t see grooms whose first concerns are about appearance. Your son has just been disqualified.”