nashra balagamwala exposes arranged marriage in pakistan by making a game about it

in pakistan, most women accept arranged marriages as their fate because they are not educated enough to be able to provide for themselves or live an independent life. based on that, experiential designer nashra balagamwala wanted to create a platform to discuss this issue in a playful manner, in other words, she masked the seriousness of this topic by turning it into a lighthearted board game. 

drawing influence from her own life, nashra balagamwala has created ‘arranged’, a game that highlights these problems and involves coming up with creative ways to avoid an arranged marriage. ‘the gameplay involves a matchmaker trying to get you married off to any and every boy she can find, while you try to run away from her, and a loveless marriage’, explains the designer. ‘you can do so by talking about having a career, gaining weight, being seen in the mall with boys, or several other things that every other society would consider normal, but are seen as disgraceful in south asian culture,’ continues balagamwala. 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lea zeitoun | designboom