First cousin marriages produce conflicts within families, communitiesand cultural groups

[caption id="attachment_20396" align="alignleft" width="225"] Signing the marriage contract in Pakistan[/caption]

Leanne Jenkins----Pakistan and India still practice first cousin marriages in defiance of scientific evidence indicating mental and physical deformities that are more prevalent in this type of marriage than those without such relationship. The controversy exists not just between cultural groups but also among the people of those regions, as the practice continues to raise important questions.

“Marry my first cousin? Never,” said an East Indian man who acknowledges it remains customary in many areas of India. “India still has that practice, but it is far more prevalent in Pakistan.” The business owner of an Indian restaurant in Portland, Oregon wishes to be anonymous for fear of argument with family members, which still takes place in his household.

A study at the University of Leeds led by investigative researcher, Eamonn Sheridan, studied the health data of 13,500 babies born in Bradford, calling the research by the title “Born in Bradford” as it examined babies born between 2007 and 2011 at the city's main hospital. 18% of these babies for whom family backgrounds had been gathered, a total of 11, 396, were of Pakistani backgrounds. The study found that three percent of the babies, or 386, had birth defects of some sort that include problems with nervous, digestive or respiratory systems as well as urinary and genital defects and cleft palates. The rate of these was nearly twice the national average.

The conclusion of these researchers was that first cousin marriages presents the risk of birth abnormalities in much higher percentages than the normal population.

Even as people question first cousin marriages in the West and find it abhorrent, and many Pakistanis avoid entering into these marriages, it does have its defenders. Dr. Faheem Younus, self described as Muslim, professor, doctor and philanthropist. In refuting the contention that first cousin marriages should be prohibited because of genetic risks he says, “The risk of birth defects in children born to first cousins is increased from a baseline of 3-4 percent to 4-7 percent according to the National Society of Genetic Councilors (NSGC). In this modern age, this risk could be mitigated by mandating -- as the State of Maine has done -- pre-marital genetic testing. The NSGC, however, considers the risk to be so insignificant that it does not recommend additional testing or screening. “

Still others believe that those who denounce first cousin marriages do so in order to impose their religion or culture on others.

Great Britain's population of Pakistanis is seen to have a significant problem with birth defects, creating a significant cultural issue in this East- West difference in the culture of marriage.  Britain, like other Western countries, have established laws against first cousin marriages, even as many people in their countries of origin continue to deny there are any significant risks to offspring either at birth or in adulthood.

Tying the knot... but where?

[caption id="attachment_7193" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Tying the Knot"][/caption]

Ernest Dempsey - In Pakistan, the tradition of marriage and the expectations that arise from it cause problems for the country and its poor.

Tradition can be your ultimate sickness in the long run. At least that is what you experience in poor, developing (used only for the lack of a fitting alternative) nations like Pakistan. Take marriage, for example. When one grows up in a society where marriage is the only acceptable form of sexual gratification and very few, if any, channels of actualizing your creative energy (read ‘principle’ if traditional taste prevails), wedding is considered a great achievement. It’s like winning a right to enjoy sex and reproduce. Sadly, this is often attempted blindly and with damaging effects in a country where birth control is still a ‘no no’ and the inflation rate is cruising ahead of the earning potential of millions.

Lately, the media has been publishing news of poor couples getting married through the financial support of non-government organizations (NGOs). In Swat, for example, 45 couples tied the knot early this year with the help of an NGO that paid for the wedding ceremony. A similar case was reported from Punjab and then more recently one from the Sindh province. There may be others of the kind, all sponsored by NGOs. Young, non-or-poorly-educated, and lacking any reliable financial means, these citizens of the country are not sure how they will manage their finances after marriage, especially after the kids arrive (and that of course happens almost every year till the couples get sexually exhausted or the doctor alarms them). They don’t know whether they’ll be able to educate their children, buy them medicine if need arose, or even feed them properly. In many cases, the children born in masses out of these mass weddings end up in labor, some begging on the streets at an early age, not to say those who will fall into criminal hands.

All this happens in the first place not only because the tradition, rooted in religion, assures the masses that marriage is a sacred duty to be performed at the earliest, but also because it discourages its followers from practicing birth control (though opinions vary according to various Islamic interpretations). Children are considered divine blessings not to be missed, no matter how large their number against however few means of nurturing available to the family. Both man and woman in wedlock are under social pressure, internal as well as from outside, to procreate, at least as far as they can. In particular, the more sons (future workers) they get, the better their elderly years will go. By the time, the sons and daughters get in their mid 20s, they themselves have become parents after getting wed with loans or, if they happen to be lucky, with financial aid from NGOs. Tying the knot repeats itself timelessly!

Media meanwhile continues to play the ocean of propaganda for promoting thoughtless obsessions of tradition. The quoted sources are just a few cases in view. The mass weddings are reported with credit going to the NGOs that are financing the poor to get married. Virtually no pen-holder spares time or cares enough to critically look at the toll it takes on the life of individuals, the nation, and the human race in the long run. Or else we would be hearing questions like ‘How much financial aid will these same NGOs spare each family with the birth of every new child?’ and ‘Do these NGOs ensure that the couples will not produce kids that they can’t bring up as independent and useful citizens of the state?’ The apparently charitable act of supporting poor masses to satiate tradition has dismal fallout for the families and the nation at large. For the NGOs, however, it is instant publicity, meaning prospects of getting more funds and hence more profit for these so-called ‘non-profit’ bodies.

Currently, Pakistan has to support about 180 million people while the country is plagued with poverty, terrorism, corruption, mismanagement, and lack of resources and technology for developing its industry and export. Do poor Pakistani couples care? If they don’t, then maybe it doesn’t matter for them to tie the knot. What does it matter if they don’t know that the knot they are tying today is going to grow tight around their neck, and that of their nation.