Chowrangi

Cousin marriages & defective children

Recently, Muslims in the U.K. were outraged when it was announced that the prevalence of marriages between cousins was responsible for a large number of defective children being born in their community. While it is true that cousin marriages slightly increase chances of children being born with genetic defects, among Muslims, most people are the products of decades of cousin marriages. If a child’s great grandparents, as well as grandparents were first cousins, it significantly increases the chances of that child having more defects than one whose forebears were not first cousins. I know many families in which children are either totally deaf or totally near-sighted, and they were shocked when doctors told them that inbreeding was to blame. For this reason, cousin marriages are banned in 26 states in the U.S., while most Hindu sects do not allow marriages between cousins. This proves that even three thousand years ago, people realized that marriage among near relatives was harmful.

So how do you convince people not to marry their cousins? The mullah will immediately say that it is a Jewish conspiracy against Islam, forgetting that it was the Holy Prophet (saw) himself who said, “Don’t marry a near relative (such as a first cousin) as in that case a child is born weak (i.e. defective)”, as quoted by Imam Ghazali in ‘Ihya Ulum id Din’.

But I doubt if in Pakistan people will marry outside their families, since in most cases, particularly in rural areas, the spouses of children are chosen by their parents when they’re hardly two or three years old.

Posted

in

,

by

Shakir Lakhani

Tags:

Comments

21 responses to “Cousin marriages & defective children”

  1. raomakbar Avatar
    raomakbar

    one should not deny the facts and figures and about the medical problems with the children of cousin marriage. this state of denial can only lead to birth of more such children.

    Reply
  2. A Khan Avatar
    A Khan

    I don’t want to be rude to anyone but please please stop this cousin marriage thing in this day and age because look at it this way the cousins share the same grand parents meaning they share the same blood line it would be like marring your own brother and sister so the people who thing that its right to marry there own cousin they should just marry there own brother and sister why draw the line if you think that its right to marry your cousin

    Also the people who incest marry cousins there children are born with major mental and physical defects along with learning difficulties and the kids suffer through no fault of there own but Family pressure because the family want to keep there land money and wealth in the family not caring about there future generations it’s a lack of education along with village culture, Because the family want to keep there land money and wealth in the family also they want to get a UK /EU US VISA when the cousin comes to UK EU US
    he / she can call overmore members of the family not caring bout the risks the future generations will face I am sure that for a british us eu visa they would evan marry there own mother, father, Daughter, sister and any other closely related

    At least for god sack countries like UK US and EU should banned this corrupt practice and the children living in these countries should refuse this kind of marriage

    Reply
  3. Rae Rice Avatar
    Rae Rice

    Hello,

    My son married his lst cousin (once removed). They had a child who was born with all kinds of health issues. He was deaf (Mondini), couldn’t talk, bad eyes, heavy feet, could not feel any pain, was retarded. He died at age 11. I highly recommend people do not marry relatives. This has been very upsetting for the whole family.

    Reply
  4. Lt. General Ayub Khan Avatar
    Lt. General Ayub Khan

    incest is disgusting….thats why i tried to do my part. Being a Pakhtun Pakistani from Tribal Areas, i do my best to spread the word.

    If you marry your cousin or any of your kin, your children inherit all the bad genes from both sides

    for the love of GOD, dont marry within the family. Unless you want retarded, defective children.

    Reply
  5. Samar Avatar
    Samar

    I am a Hindu Jat of Haryana, India. Our ethnic community has social prohibition of marrying with in same Gotra. Ancestors of this sub continent had forseen biological and social impacts of close marriages and thaty they had made it in my view. Like every tribe, culture put values/honour in their kids and women when somehow they violate it, it brings the living death of honour to the family. So comes the killing to regain a bit of honour got tainted in incestual act of marriage.

    Thanks

    Reply
  6. Hend Avatar
    Hend

    @Shakir

    I am not sure why these laws are there in USA. In India too, I am not sure of the exact reason, need to research.

    To answer your first question this law regards such Hindu marriages incestuous and disallows them, except in cases where such tradition has existed in that specific community. So that means if someone lodges a case and proves, then the marriage could be voided, unless was a known practice in that community.

    There is no punishment, and they don’t have to live separately, it just means that the marriage has no legal value.

    Such cases normally come up before the court when either party wants a divorce and when the court finds out that the relationship was not allowed then they are advised to get a annullment or voidance certificate instead of a divorce certificate.

    So you can say that fundamentally they are not prevented by law from having a relationship but they are treated differently in terms of property division and alimony matters.

    Reply
  7. Shakir Lakhani Avatar
    Shakir Lakhani

    @ Hend: “Some of these provisions in law are purely to prevent girls from being forcibly married…..”. So what happens if a boy and girl who are closely related but want to get married? Why should there be a law which prevents them from exercising this fundamental right? How can India (a secular democracy) have this kind of law? For that matter, why do some states in the U.S. also have a law banning marriages between first cousins?

    Reply
  8. Hend Avatar
    Hend

    Shakir
    Every human DNA has some defects. This does not necessarily reflect in to a physical abnormality because of the way the genes are and paired in the DNA.

    The likelyhood of people related to each other having the same defect accross many generations is higher than unrelated people. When people related to each other produce offspring, the chances of such defective genes pairing together and producing a physical abnormality are higher.

    Four things after reading the above
    1. Offspring of related people will not always have defect.
    2. Offspring of unrelated people can also have defects.
    3. Chances of abnormality are higher in offspring of related people simply because they might have the same defective genes which can pair together.
    4. An abnormality can resurface after many generations and even to seemingly normal parents if bad genes pair up.

    You rightly mentioned that in USA some states ban cousin marriages.

    In India the Hindu marriage acts places similar restrictions on Hindus but others such as Christians, Muslims, Zoroastrians and Jews are exempted from it. I doubt to what extent Hindus follow this actual law because there are many more restrictions for example it not bans upto fourth cousin on father’s side and second on mother’s side. Some of these provisions in law are purely to prevent girls from being forcibly married or promised within the family to keep the family wealth undivided and hence relevant in closed and repressive societies.

    Reply
  9. Shakir Lakhani Avatar
    Shakir Lakhani

    @ Hend: So why are cousin marriages banned in certain U.S. states? My personal observation is that after four or five generations, defective children are produced. I know a few familes in which practically everyone is deaf (or cross-eyed). It is also apparent that even where cousin marriage is not very common, yet there are physical defects in some children who are born to cousins.

    Reply
  10. Hend Avatar
    Hend

    Shakir
    This is a relevant topic to mention one of your posts on honor killing among Hindus in which a Hindu couple was killed for marrying within their own caste.

    The word caste was wrongly used in that report instead of ‘Gotra’ maybe to simplify the report or out of lack of understanding.

    People belonging to the same caste can have different Gotras. Hindus generally marry within their caste (ethic community) but outside ‘Gotra’.

    The Gotra is kind a broad family tree named after an ancient ancestor. Marrying within the same Gotra is considered somewhat akin to incest and cause of birth defects.

    From a purely religious point of view, most Hindu cultures frown upon marriages among close family members, ofcourse killing someone for this is rare and criminal.

    From a scientific perspective it is believed that those birth defects which are linked to genetics have a greater chance of occurring if people marry within close families or within a small gene pool. This not to be confused or countered by saying that other people who don’t marry cousins also have genetic defects. We are talking about probabilities based on hard statistics and proven scientific studies.

    From a human perspective, this is a personal decision between two people and their families. Regardless of pros and cons we should let those people decide for themselves.

    Reply
Older Comments
1 2 3
Newer Comments

Leave a Reply to Saurabh Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *