Hi houri,
I was actually talking about the concept that I outlined in my previous post on a general basis (not specifically in relation to the political system in parts of the Gulf region, regarding interracial relationships/marriage or its citizenry). As for rulers of (certain) countries marrying someone who isn’t a part of their community on an ethnic/cultural basis, I personally don’t find that there’s anything wrong with that, just as I don’t find that there’s anything wrong with a person marrying someone who is a part of their own community as well (regardless of their status, especially on a class basis in this case). I believe in the prior idea, considering that a leader’s spouse wouldn’t necessarily use their status to influence the citizenry in a “bad” way, through perhaps “different” social, cultural and political means, if that’s what you meant by the ruler and his/her mate having an impact on individuals within the prior’s society through many of their actions.
In reference to certain supposed laws in the Gulf which allow a ruler (and/or the person’s ethnically mixed child(ren)) to marry an “outsider” and keep their status, (especially through occupation means) while it isn’t the same for a “commoner”, I actually never knew that that law existed and don’t agree with it one bit (I never acknowledged the law, nor did I state that I agreed with it in my former post). Again from my personal viewpoint, I believe that a person (whatever their ethnicity, culture, status, occupation etc. is) should be able to marry whomever they want (whether a local from their ethnic/cultural community or not-as long as they do it for the right reasons and not for status ideals or certain stereotypical views (whether good or bad), that they have of most or all of the members within the ethnic/cultural group of the person that they’re marrying or are already married to).
As for your last comment, whether a person gets married through an arranged marriage or not (and this generally speaking and not specifically in relation to the practices of some members within the Gulf region in regards to choosing a spouse), they can still eventually fall in love with each other in the end, meaning that an “arranged marriage” can very well (and many times does) evolve into a “love marriage” for some people (even though many individuals who wed through a “love marriage” can eventually fall out of the feeling). Also there are different types of arranged marriages (but I don’t want to get into that right now). If what you actually meant was that some Gulf citizens place more emphasis on cultural values within a potential future spouse than on love, I don’t believe that the two concepts (cultural values and love) have to necessarily be separate and not joint. A person (regardless of their background) could very well find certain qualities in a person (whether cultural nor not) attractive or appealing, which would make them fall in love with the person (whether in the present time i.e. pre-marriage or in the future i.e. post marriage).
Anyway, what I meant to say by the above quote was that, rather than becoming angry and upset (or even jealous in some cases) over a person who is a part of a given ethnic/cultural community being in a relationship with an “outsider”, a person (who is a part of the same cultural group as the prior) should move on and find and/or concentrate on their own mate (i.e. find (or concentrate on) someone who will (or already does) love and care about them on a relationship basis). The point that I was trying to make was that some anti-interracial people (especially in regards to ethnically mixed relationships/marriages by individual members of their own community), shouldn’t get all possessive over the so-called rejecter and shouldn’t base their self-worth (especially through ethnic means) based on who some of the members of the opposite gender within their cultural group, decide to and/or prefer to marry in regards to race (unless off course as you earlier mentioned, there are certain social, cultural and political inequalities within a specific region in reference to certain practices i.e. status/occupation, marriage and interracial relationships/marriage in this case).
