Re: Are other non-Pakistani Muslims so gung-ho about “inter family” marriages?
Arabs (Saudis I know do it A LOT, I read somewhere over 50% of them marry cousins) as well as desis (Indians and Bangladeshis seem to do it less than Pakistanis tho). We don’t have any cousin marriages in our family at all, they actually discourage it. One of my best friends is half Malaysian and she told me cousin marriage isn’t so common in their culture.
This shocked me, esp the last bit:
‘A BBC report[4]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_couple#cite_note-3) found that Pakistanis in Britain, 55% of whom marry a first cousin, are 13 times more likely than the general population to produce children with genetic disorders, and that one in ten children of cousin marriages either dies in infancy or develops a serious disability. Thus Pakistani-Britons, who account for some 3% of all births in the UK, produce “just under a third” of all British children with genetic illnesses.’
Source: Cousin couple - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I know one or two cousin marriages in a family is no big deal but this is what happens when generation after generation only marry within their famly.