Tradition of marriage is already a highly debated topic and the reason for that could be anything ranging from commitment phobia to responsibility issues to the expectation of “happily ever after” with THE ONE. However, every time this topic is referred it is answered by saying that this is a tradition entire world has been following for many centuries, probably since beginning of the civilization and there are many successful marriages. Though, marriage is a topic that is discussed daily either in form of some one’s misery or some one’s happiness or as a Whatsapp/SMS joke where the husband is always posed as victim of his wife’s ‘attics’, that is offending to some people and taken lightly as a joke by some of the people.

If I seriously question who suffers the most in marriage, a man or a woman? Though, I don’t want to spark one more debate, but on the basis of your gender I can guess your answers. Well, when we think about marriage in India it is more about casting two lives in various roles where love and sex are not openly discussed. Many a times, sex is considered as man’s privilege and for woman it’s a yardstick for her character from where if she deviates by not following the societal norms either as a single or a married woman then various labels are attached to her which makes sex just a process necessary for procreation, where woman is expected to be submissive and when she is not then do I need to write what labels are attached to her? That may be the reason when a woman can’t conceive due to any reason, women are questioned more and accused more. However, exceptions are always there but an exception accepted by any society is rare and here is one such tradition followed in Mosuo Culture.

Things are different for the Mosuo – a Chinese ethnic minority group who live in the Himalayas, close to the Tibetan border. Tradition of Mosuo culture may be difficult for many of the societies and cultures to accept. In Mosuo culture, after a girl attains puberty; she has her own bedroom and she attains the freedom to choose her own life partner. Though, Mosuo is a tribal area, this may be a society’s most liberated approach towards role of women in love and sexual relationships.

Mosuo people practice zuohun -“Walking Marriages”, where once a female chooses her partner and if the man reciprocates then nobody can oppose their consensual relationship. Man goes to woman at night and in morning he returns to his own home. Even though they are married, woman lives with her family and man with his. When kids are born they stay with the mother’s family. As a woman, Musuo female has a right to choose her life partner and in a life time man and woman have freedom to be with partners they really love. There is no stigma attached to who is the father of the child. Definitely, in matrilineal culture the mother has more right to her children but that doesn’t mean that the father doesn’t take any responsibility of children. However, children stay with their mother in the joint family due to which hardly anybody is forced to take the responsibility of child’s upbringing.

Due to the practice of “walking marriages” there are no cases of domestic violence, dowry, and divorce or child custody. However, such a liberal view of “love” is not acceptable in general by the ‘normal’ society like the one in which we live in today and hence they have tried to tarnish the image of Mosuos which had attracted the tourism due to its unique culture and mindset.

Finally, these people moved to another village and still living happily with their 2000 year old tradition that is still not acceptable to many. It’s not that this tradition doesn’t have any flaws but when misogyny is surfaced everyday through one or the other incident around the world, such a liberal view towards a woman’s sexuality from a very small part of the world is like a silver lining on dark clouds.

When Your Partner Is Most Likely To Cheat – Marriage and Relationships