I've seen for myself just how ruinous this practice can be, writes KHADIJA KHAN on cousin marriages
Hundreds of children across Britain are living as best they can with crippling neurological syndromes, unable to move without a wheelchair, let alone play football or any of the other sports their peers take for granted.
Or they live with blindness, deafness, learning problems or the routine failure of their lungs, livers, hearts or kidneys – their painfully shortened lives spent in and out of hospitals.
Their genetic conditions are so rare that they are nameless, and confound the best consultants in the world. More yet are stillborn.
And it is maddening to think that their young lives needn’t have been ruined in this way.
For these children are the offspring of cousin marriages, a sham tradition that is prevalent in Pakistani communities.
There, I’ve said it – this is a cultural problem. This does not arise from women smoking or drinking during pregnancy. Nor does this have anything to do with their age.
Every tragedy described above comes about through a practice that is driven by deeply religious beliefs and alarmingly high levels of illiteracy – something that NHS England’s Genomics Education Programme seems blithely relaxed about.
Having grown up in Pakistan, where an astonishing 65 per cent of marriages are between blood relatives – or consanguineous – I have witnessed how ruinous the practice can be.
The practice, which is common in the British Pakistani community, has been linked to a greater prevalence of disorders such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell disease
This map, by Professor Alan Bittles an Australian expert in genomics, shows rates of consanguineous marriage, that between cousins, around the world
Of course, it can be disastrous for the baby but also ostracising for the mother dare she criticise cousin marriages.
My aunt did so, fearing for the health of her future children.
She courageously sought to break free from the cycle of cousin marriages and was told she was no longer part of the family.
On the few occasions she was invited to functions, it was as a guest rather than as the eldest daughter.
But her single-mindedness beat a path for my mother to follow.
However, this was a generation ago. Now, in Pakistan discussion of the biological concerns over cousin marriage is common, at least in the more enlightened cities.
So why on earth is an NHS body drawing a veil of silence over the issue here?
The Genomics Education Programme would seemingly rather it be swept under the carpet with the implicit warning that any discussion of cousin marriage is culturally insensitive, which only emboldens those in Muslim communities who use it as a means of controlling women.
The practice perpetuates a misogynistic culture – the extreme manifestation of which is honour killings, so it not to be excused or indulged, as this NHS body seems intent on doing.
Least of all on the risible pretext that if it happened 500 years ago, then it continues to have a place in modern Britain. In seeking to remove the stigma around cousin marriages, the Genomics Education Programme points out that laws permitting the practice ‘date back to the reign of Henry VIII’.
With two executed wives to his name, the Tudor king is hardly a poster boy for women’s rights.
But as the grooming gangs scandal has shown us, the safety of young girls – and now the future health of babies – can easily be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15140545/ruinous-practice-KHADIJA-KHAN-cousin-marriages.html
Fury after woke NHS supports first-cousin marriages despite risk of birth defects - and oppression against women
The guidance says that it has been allowed in Britain since Henry VIII passed a law enabling him to marry Anne Boleyn's cousin Catherine Howard.
The practice, which is common in the British Pakistani community, has been linked to a greater prevalence of disorders such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell disease.
Figures show that up to 20 per cent of the children treated for congenital problems in cities such as Sheffield, Glasgow and Birmingham are of Pakistani descent, compared with 4 per cent or lower in the wider population – and treating these problems costs the NHS billions.
First-cousin marriage is linked to an increased likelihood of a child having a genetic condition or a congenital anomaly.
The practice, which is common in the British Pakistani community, has been linked to a greater prevalence of disorders such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell disease
Children of first cousins have an increased chance of being born with a genetic condition, of about 4-6 per cent.
Tory MP Richard Holden said that the Conservatives would legislate to ban marriage between first cousins on the grounds that it 'destroys integration, women's rights and the health of those involved'.
Mr Holden told The Mail on Sunday: 'Our NHS should stop taking the knee to damaging and oppressive cultural practices.
The Conservatives also want to see an end to cousin marriage as it is a back door to immigration fraud, but Labour are deaf to these sensible demands.
Sir Keir Starmer should stop running scared of the misogynistic community controllers and their quislings who appear in the form of cultural relativist obsessed sociology professors, and ban a practice the overwhelming majority, from every community in Britain, want to see ended for good.'
Dr Patrick Nash, an expert on religious law and director of the Pharos Foundation social science research group in Oxford, said it was 'truly dismaying to see NHS England publishing official 'educational' material that promotes the supposed social benefits of cousin marriage without even mentioning its proven links to honour violence, gender discrimination, multifarious forms of clan corruption, and the immense cost to the taxpayer'.
Dr Nash added: 'Cousin marriage is incest, plain and simple, and needs to be banned with the utmost urgency – there is no 'balance' to be struck between this cultural lifestyle choice and the severe public health implications it incurs.
'This official article is deeply misleading and should be retracted with an apology so that the public is not misled by omission and half-truths.'
This graphic, from NHS material distributed to couples in Bradford, explains some of the genetic risks of having children with a close relative. Two parents with a recessive gene have an increased chance of having a child with an inherited condition
A YouGov poll earlier this year found that three quarters of Britons support a ban, with only 9 per cent thinking the law should remain as it is.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15140539/NHS-cousin-marriages-risk-birth-defects-women.html
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