This is a common practice globally in many cultures and countries, but it is far more common in Pakistan than in any other country with a high percentage of 55-60% marrying their first cousins. Consanguine marriages are not only common within Pakistan, but also a practice amongst British Pakistani communities.
In Pakistan, cousin marriages are perceived to be better for marital stability and to promote compatibility between both the couple and between the bride and her mother-in-law (Hakim, 1994; Jacoby & Mansuri, 2010).
Answering a 2012 audience question, the popular Islamic preacher Zakir Naik noted that the Quran does not forbid cousin marriage but quotes Dr. Ahmed Sakr as saying that there is a hadith of Muhammad that says: "Do not marry generation after generation among first cousins".
A recent paper by the scholar Patrick Nash suggests between 38 per cent and 59 per cent of British Pakistanis marry first cousins; Alison Shaw, a professor of social anthropology at Oxford, has noted the rate may be rising.
Consanguineous marriages constitute 10.4% of marriages worldwide. We explore what leads people to marry relatives using data from Pakistan, which has the highest rates of cousin marriage globally.
Some people may be surprised that you can marry your first cousin! In fact, it may shock many people that in Australia there are quite a number of your relatives whom it is legal for you to marry. I expect that some people simply cannot imagine being married to any relative. But the law says it's ok to do so.
In some South Asian, Middle Eastern, and north African countries, as many as half of marriages are consanguineous. 1 In Pakistan, half of the population marry a first or second cousin, more than in any other country.
Noticeably, many Arab countries display some of the highest rates of consanguineous marriages in the world ranging around 20-50% of all marriages, and specifically favoring first cousin marriages with average rates of about 20-30% (Table 1, Figure 1, Additional file 1).
But, it is far more common in Pakistan than in any other country, with a high percentage marrying their first cousins. According to BMC Women's Health data, Pakistan has one of the highest rates of cousin marriages at 65%. Contrastingly, many sub-sects within Indian cultures prohibit marriages among cousins.
In Islam, marriages between first cousins are permitted. (Surah Nisa Verse 22-24).
Muslims can marry their cousins, and often do, as well as kiss them.
There is a general consensus among Sunni and Shia fiqh experts that Surah Al-Baqarah 221 and Surat Al‑Mumtahanah 10 ban Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men. This consensus is still standing strong. On the other hand, the Quran allows Muslim men to marry non-Muslim women (“People of the Book”).
First cousins have an inbreeding coefficient of 0.0625. Anything at or above 0.0156, the coefficient for second cousins, is considered consanguineous; that includes relationships between people and their nephews and nieces.
What are prohibited relationships under the law? You cannot marry your mother, grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, great-niece, aunts, or great-aunts. You also cannot marry someone who is also related to you through such relatives. For example, you cannot marry your great granddaughter.
In the United States, second cousins are legally allowed to marry in every state. However, marriage between first cousins is legal in only about half of the American states. All in all, marrying your cousin or half-sibling will largely depend on the laws where you live and personal and/or cultural beliefs.
Children of first-cousin marriages have an increased risk of autosomal recessive genetic disorders, and this risk is higher in populations that are already highly ethnically similar. Children of more distantly related cousins have less risk of these disorders, though still higher than the average population.
Consanguineous unions range from cousin-cousin to more distant relatedness, and their prevalence varies by culture. Prevalence is highest in Arab countries, followed by India, Japan, Brazil and Israel.
Marring a cousin -including a first cousin- is not forbidden in Islam. There is an old practice within Arab families once one family member get rich and powerful he marry his children within the family.
in any case, a cousin of one's parent isn't forbidden unless, say he is currently married To your sister or he ever married your mother.
Marriages between relatives are widespread in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where a government study has found that 56.8% of all marriages are between first and second cousins or more distant relatives.
This means that 94-96% of the time they have a healthy child. The risk for second cousins to have a child with a disability is even lower. Their risk is just a bit higher than the 3% risk that all unrelated couples have. So, for every 100 second cousins who have kids, 96-97 children are perfectly healthy.
The children of your uncle or aunt are your cousins, and marriage between cousins is allowed, not compulsory as some people believe. Marriage in Islam is permitted to anyone except those that are expressly forbidden.