Dear Blue:

I understand that you care a whole lot about what your parents think you should do, and I understand that in conservative cultures the parents practically, if not legally,  own their daughters until the day she marries (and then her husband and his mother owns her). There are many exceptions to this rule in modern times, and maybe you can be one of these exceptions. Maybe you can take ownership of your life and make your own choices, now as a single woman and later as a married woman, if you get married.

This man is poor, you wrote. Well, poverty is not a crime, and maybe there is a way for him to make a little more money. If this man is a good man, if he respects you and will not be in the way of you owning your own life as a married woman, then consider marrying him.

Did you talk to your parents about marrying him after the first time they disagreed with the idea, or is it that if they decide something for you, their decision is final?

anita