2.  Most Pakistani women do not read their marriage contracts, in which they often relinquish many rights most in the West take for granted.  On a related note, I have often been surprised at how even people in the West do not think long and hard about the legal issues surrounding their marriages: money issues (in particular, in the event of a divorce), issues regarding how they will raise their children, et al.  Why do most people just accept the default prescriptions: joint bank accounts, the courts will decide custodial issues (often in favor of women), etc.?  As the author of the Slate article points out, your marriage contract is probably the most important contract you will ever enter into, yet even most lawyers don’t bother to think through the implications.