Cousin marriage in the Middle East
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Cousin marriage is a form of consanguinity (marriages among couples who are related as second cousins or closer). As of 2003, an average of 45% of married couples were related in Saudi Arabia.[1] While consanguinity is not unique to the Arab or Islamic world, Arab countries have had "some of the highest rates of consanguineous marriages in the world".[2] The bint 'amm marriage, or marriage with one's father's brother's daughter (bint al-'amm) is especially common, especially in tribal and traditional Muslim communities,[3] where men and women seldom meet potential spouses outside the extended family.[1]
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Anthropologists have debated the significance of the practice; some view it as the defining feature of the Middle Eastern kinship system while others note that overall rates of cousin marriage have varied sharply between different Middle Eastern communities. In pre-modern times rates of cousin marriage were seldom recorded.[4] In recent times, geneticists have warned that the tradition of cousin marriage over centuries has led to recessive genetic disorders, due to inbreeding.[1]