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Mail Order Brides have been in existence since time immemorial. In the olden days, we have read stories of women in England groomed to become a bride to whoever had the capacity to marry her. Or we also heard of pre-arrange marriages in most Chinese families to enable to preserve family wealth or the inter cultural marriages in Asia or the mass wedding of the so-called moonies who before hand came to the Philippines to choose their brides.

Who do you you think is in the loosing end of the above situation? The women of course. While it is true that women nowadays excel in their respective fields, (eg. women leaders and achievers who became successful and famous for their respective work) and quite a number of women today have moved forward and fast, there are also women specially in the third world countries who are left behind due to poverty. Women who toiled night and day and all because they dream of a better life for them and their loved ones.

One specific issue on women from the poor third world countries is the reality that these women resort to posting their biography with matching sexy photos in the internet in order to find a boyfriend and eventually marry the guy and settle abroad. Usually the meeting period is between 1 week to 3 months. After which, within that period the guy decides to visit the girl and in most cases apply for a fiancee visa.

After 6-8 months, the visa is approved and the girl flies to the US or UK or France or Canada or wherever the boyfriend is. Then they get married within 90 days otherwise the fiancee visa will expire and the girl will be deported, this at least is true in America. More or less other countries have the same policy also.

It is considered a gamble for both the newly wed couple because as they consume the marriage they only started to get to know each other. Much pressure is on the part of the women. What with their new environment and the seemingly ambiguous life they are suddenly into. But in all these, they must only think of their future and the strong hope for happiness and security in the life they either choose or have no choice but to embrace.

Life for these women are not mostly successful.  But the endurance coupled with strong determination to better their lives is what keep them going. These women are called internet brides. They met their partners/ husbands in the internet and move on from there.

A parallelism can be drawn between these internet brides and the women who are arranged to marry the man of their family’s/ parents’ choice. The internet bride is only a modern version of this decade long mail ordered bride phenomenon. And while there is poverty and inequality, the powerful will always take advantage of the powerless in order to stay on top.