I remember when my first-grade friends and I played Pretty Pretty Princess, had luxurious tea parties, and fantasized about our wedding days. Little has changed, even though most of my friends and I are now 23. We still act like royalty on Rodeo, have tea parties at our local shrine (Starbucks), and scour our monthly bridal magazines for the perfect wedding gown.
As you may surmise, I am now competing in a relentless race with my female adversaries to find Mr. Right and begin the breeding process before my time is “up.” In the Middle Eastern (ME) culture, a girl’s time is typically defined as being “up” when she is 30 years old and still not married. Consequently, this is also an indication of her being an “old maid.” While this mentality may seem slightly prehistoric, the pressure for women to marry early is still embedded in the lives of ME girls, and some logic remains in this tradition.

Today, a fundamental concern of ME parents is to preserve their daughters’ purity (a la virgin status). Ultimately, young girls must remain virgins until marriage – or risk “disgracing” their families. This is accompanied by the cliché expectation that women should get married to bear children, which also drives them into the marriage pool before 30. This practice is not merely preferred by parents; it is a cultural fixation.
Thus, girls are expected to and oftentimes even pressured to marry early in order to minimize the risk of their losing their virginities before marriage.
Now, you’re probably thinking – the 21st century’s dating scene often includes sex before marriage, which makes the ME cultural fixation seem archaic and unrealistic. Truthfully, though, this notion is not far removed from a ME girl’s reality.

In an article found on BBC News, one ME female student commented,

“Boys I know have many girlfriends, even at the same time. One of my best friends told me he made love with his girlfriend and then said, 'I won't ever marry her-- she's not a virgin.’”

Apparently this idea of purity still exists, not only among parents but also among ME males looking for their virgin brides. Obviously, this fixation is not set in stone, especially not among youth in America, but is nonetheless still practiced by many.

And for those who are unable to resist the “temptation,” technology has provided an outlet to maintain the conception of still being a virgin. In fact, according to Heather Sharp, journalist for BBC News,

“A bride's virginity is so highly prized that many doctors charge up to 1000 Egyptian pounds (US3) to reconstruct a young woman's hymen.”

Aside from hymen reconstruction, a highly successful man who has just spent the last ten years of his life establishing himself and building a solid business reputation wants the best potential wife. Like Donald Trump, nearly every other successful man has an amazing woman behind him. A man aged 30 to 35 prefers not to marry a woman who is 30 or older.

Medically speaking, the potential for a woman to bear healthy children greatly decreases after age 30 . The ability to bear healthy children is extremely important not only for women but also for many men.

Additional research has revealed that women who become pregnant after age 30 run a higher chance of bearing unhealthy children. For example, the risk of a disability such as Down Syndrome in children increases by 30%. Other factors include hormonal imbalances and a lack of optimum gene selection.
Not only that. The potential mothers themselves face a greater risk of experiencing illness and obstetrical complications that can lead to miscarriages or even their own death during childbirth.

While the pressure to marry before 30 exists, it exists nearly everywhere for a simple reason. For the last few thousand years, a logical and efficient system of producing the most healthy children has been working. Why fix something that is not broken?