Pakistani woman’s board game ‘Arranged’ could help deal with marriage!

Bhubaneswar: A 24-year-old Pakistani woman has created a board game ‘Arranged!’ based on her experiences of the traditional matchmaking custom in her country.

According to media reports, Nashra Balagamwala has come up with a board game, reflecting the custom of arranged marriages in Pakistan.

Balagamwala is also quoted saying that she had never thought that the game would help her avoid arrange marriage.

Balagamwala explained that she came under pressure from her family to submit to an arranged marriage. But to avoid it, she moved to New York; studied at the Rhode Island School of Design there and worked at a board game company, Hasbro for about one year.

She designed the board game based on the experiences of her friends who had arranged marriages with little to no clue about the person they were to end up with prior to marriage.

As per Balagamwala, the excuses she had made to avoid arrange marriage like talking about higher studies, wearing fake engagement rings, having male friends, or getting a tan helped her design the game.

In the board game Arranged! the player must do everything to avoid the matchmaker, who is moved by another player known as ‘rishta aunty’.

The cards are drawn randomly to help the bride avoid the rishta aunty. Some of the commands from the drawn cards are like, "you want to pursue a career… move four steps," but ending up with the rista aunty on the same tile raises threat of getting married to either one of the male suitors distributed around the board game.

"This game has really helped decrease the pressure of getting an arranged marriage. Ever since I've spoken up...I'm no longer the perfect submissive bride these women are looking for because I'm...too strong-minded and independent," Mashable quoted Nashra as saying.