'Why I want an arranged marriage'

Many people will wonder why a modern 24-year-old Muslim woman raised in the UK would opt for something as traditional as an arranged marriage. Raziye Akkoc explains why she wants one.

"I'm engaged," she shouted down the phone. Here I was, first year at university, sitting on a dirty wall outside my apartment, being told by my best friend that at the age of 19, she was engaged. I was expecting this call because my friend was always considered more traditional than the rest of my group of three Muslim girlfriends - but it surprised me how soon it came.

She was in her second year of university; I'd only just started my degree, and until this point, we had no married or engaged friends.