Bridget Jones? She's got it easy | the "Brown" Bridget Singletons at Schema : more than ethnic

Bridget Jones? She's got it easy | the "Brown" Bridget Singletons

(Source: Bridget Jones? She's got it easy by Yasmeen Khan @ BBC)

"For British [South] Asian females, who are facing a shrinking pool of eligible men, Bridget Jones had it easy. I can personally vouch that for every miserable, white Bridget Jones singleton out there, there is a brown Bridget having a worse time.

Many young British [South] Asian women, be they Muslim, Sikh or Hindu, are struggling to find a life partner. Alongside their white peers they have delayed marriage, putting education and careers first. Brown Bridgets, however, have more to moan about, working around religious and cultural limits leaves them with a small pond to fish in when it comes to finding their Mr Right.

'I'm independent and successful and it's daunting to think I might have to up sticks and move to another town to move in with my in-laws as soon as I'm married.' "

Statistics seem to be against [South] Asian women too. The last census showed that more British [South] Asian men are marrying outside of their ethnic group than British [South] Asian women. For [South] Asian men the option to "marry out" is made easier by the fact that it is culturally, and in some cases religiously, less frowned upon to choose a partner outside of their faith than it is for [South] Asian women.

As we're still in the first generation of well-educated, career-minded [South] Asian women who have delayed marriage, drawing any conclusions about what will happen to those who don't is difficult.

"We've started to notice a few more [South] Asian women marrying outside of their own cultures," says Sat Bhatti, partner in wedding planning company OccAsianZ. "In fact, we recently organised the weddings of two Sikh women who married white men. "But you tend to only see this in cities where [South] Asian communities are more liberal. Outside of London, for example, a mixed marriage is still a big deal."

While "marrying out" offers a new avenue, some women are still wary because of the cultural clashes that a mixed union can bring. Surprisingly, it was a first generation British [South] Asian mother who recently offered some Bridget Jones-like idealistic insight that got straight to the heart of the matter.

"There's nothing wrong with a nice white boy, as long as he likes curry I'm sure it could work," she said.

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