Kinship in rural Pakistan: Consanguineous marriages and their implications for women

Agha, Nadia

doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2015.10.005

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Both consanguineous and non-consanguineous marriages share multi-factorial marriage stressors, which can lead to the development of mental health challenges (Assaf and Khawaja 2009). However, consanguineous marriages may have additional stress burdens such as (i) coping with unanticipated infant death, birth defects and/or genetic abnormalities in offspring, (ii) adjusting to marriage with a "parental chosen" partner (the patriarchal, hierarchical nature of the UAE frequently means that women rarely enjoy the right to decide whom they will marry; Agha 2016), and (iii) coping with family pressures to conserve family lineage and/or protect family wealth (Agha 2016). Furthermore, young unmarried Emirati women are frequently ill-informed regarding the risks and potential problems of consanguineous marriage (Hasab and Jaffer 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

Emirati Women’s Experiences of Consanguineous Marriage: a Qualitative Exploration of Attitudes, Health Challenges, and Coping Styles

Buren

Gordon

2019

Int J Ment Health Addiction

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Consanguineous marriage is associated with increased risk of congenital physical disabilities, as well as behavioural and mental health problems among consanguineous offspring. Furthermore, mental health problems have been highlighted as being prevalent among women involved in consanguineous marriages. Despite this, there has been limited research exploring the lived experiences of consanguineous marriage among women living in the United Arab Emirates, where up to 39% of all marriages are consanguineous. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of Emirati women involved in a consanguineous marriage in order to improve understanding of the experiential challenges faced by such individuals. Six Emirati women involved in a consanguineous marriage attended a focus group, and a thematic analysis of the interview transcript was subsequently undertaken. Five master themes emerged from the dataset: (i) Reasons for Marrying Consanguineously, (ii) Awareness and Fear of Hereditary Diseases, (iii) Emotional and Psychological Challenges, (iv) Coping Mechanisms, and (v) Confidence in Consanguineous Marriages. The master themes indicated a high level of family and parental influence as well as a cultural/traditional paradigm as being key causes for entering into a consanguineous marriage. Emotional and mental health challenges arouse due to the fear of genetic problems among offspring as well as difficulties coming to terms with consanguineous marriage dynamics. Self-help coping strategies were identified such as participants turning to religion in times of need, while shunning professional psychological help. Despite these challenges, participants generally retained confidence in the consanguineous marriage process. Findings shed light on the personal and health challenges experienced by Emirati women involved in consanguineous marriages, and highlight the need for further research to better understand the support needs of this population group.

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confidence: 99%

Emirati Women’s Experiences of Consanguineous Marriage: a Qualitative Exploration of Attitudes, Health Challenges, and Coping Styles

Buren

Gordon

2019

Int J Ment Health Addiction

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“…5 Close kin marriages were also practiced among Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Christians, Parsis and Druze who live in southern and western regions of Asia. 6 Historical literature corroborate such breeding practices in ancient Greece, Israel, classic Rome, ancient Egypt and Orient regions of North and South Korea; where consanguineous marriages are now prohibited by law. 7 In Ptolemaic Dynasty, the marriage practices were both incestuous and consanguineous as it was considered advantageous for a pharaoh to marry either his sister, half-sister or a cousin.…”

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confidence: 89%

“…15,6 It is a multicultural country with diverse cultures, various castes and different Islamic sects living in its five distinct provinces. So far all the studies from different areas of Pakistan have shown a high number of consanguineous marriages and their association with various recessively inherited disorders.…”

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Current trends of consanguineous marriages and its association with socio-demographic variables in Pakistan

Khan

Mazhar

2018

Int J Reprod Contracept Obstet Gynecol

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Background: A high proportion of marriages in South and Middle East Asia are contracted between close biological relatives due to cultural preference as it is a deeply rooted social fashion among these societies. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of consanguineous marriages and ascertain their relationship to relevant sociodemographic variables. Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive study conducted in tertiary care hospital of Islamabad. Data were collected on a specially designed questionnaire form. Age of participants, their education, socioeconomic status, castes and number of anomalous children born to these participants, degree of consanguinity and reasons of preferences were inquired. Results: Out of 300 women chosen by convenience sampling technique, 62% had consanguineous marriages, and 38% had a non-consanguineous union. The mean age of women presenting to maternal and child health centre was 27 years. The average age of a woman having consanguineous marriage was 21 years in contrast to 24 years for non-consanguineous nuptial. About 18% of women in consanguineous marriages were illiterate as compared to 5.4% (p = 0.001) of women in non-consanguineous unions. First cousin marriages were more common among certain castes like Rajput and Awan. None in the consanguineous group had any anomalous baby in contrast to non-consanguineous who had two anomalous children (p = 0.0001). There was no significant association between type of marriage and the number of miscarriages (p=0.69).Conclusions: This study showed UA-S/D ratio and UA-RI>2SD are significant predictors of perinatal deaths and immediate neonatal resuscitation in preeclampsia. Acute fetal distress in labour or neonatal nursery admission could not be predicted.

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“…Pakistan, a multi-cultural country with diverse caste systems, has been showing consistently the highest prevalence of consanguinity [14,15]. Consanguineous marriages are encouraged in the country due to multiple reasons, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consanguineous Marriages and Their Association With Women’s Reproductive Health and Fertility Behavior in Pakistan: Secondary Data Analysis From Demographic and Health Surveys, 1990–2018

Iqbal

Zakar

Fischer

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Pakistan has been showing consistently the highest prevalence of consanguinity. The popularity of consanguineous marriages is not declining in the country, because of social, cultural, and religious beliefs as well as economic advantages. However, couples also face various health related implications, such as poor pregnancy outcomes or multiple reproductive and fertility consequences, having adverse effects on mothers and their children. This research investigated the trend of consanguineous marriages and their association with women’s reproductive health and fertility behavior in Pakistan from 1990 to 2018.Methods: This study is based on a secondary data analysis, using all four waves of the Pakistan Demographic Health Surveys carried out during 1990 to 2018. The analysis is limited to women aged 15–49 years, who had given birth in the previous five years preceding each survey. Descriptive statistics, bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the association of consanguinity with multiple characteristics related to socio-demographics, co-variates and women’s reproductive health and fertility behaviors. Results: The findings revealed an high but overall stable trend of consanguinity prevalence of about 63% during the last three decades. Consanguineous marriages were more prevalent amongst young and uneducated women, living in rural areas, with poorer wealth status and having less exposure of mass media to access information. A strong association of consanguinity was observed with women’s reproductive health and fertility behavior, particularly for women who gave first birth at younger age, had multi-gravida pregnancies, multi-parity, pregnancy termination, ANC visits and higher fertility.Conclusion: Consanguineous marriages are predominant in the patriarchal society of Pakistan. Findings revealed that consanguinity contributes significantly to women’s reproductive health and fertility behaviors. Appropriate counselling, educational and health promotional programs related to consanguinity should be designed and launched at community level to raise awareness about risks towards women’s reproductive health and fertility.

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Kinship in rural Pakistan: Consanguineous marriages and their implications for women

Cited by 25 publications

References 11 publications

Emirati Women’s Experiences of Consanguineous Marriage: a Qualitative Exploration of Attitudes, Health Challenges, and Coping Styles

Emirati Women’s Experiences of Consanguineous Marriage: a Qualitative Exploration of Attitudes, Health Challenges, and Coping Styles

Current trends of consanguineous marriages and its association with socio-demographic variables in Pakistan

Consanguineous Marriages and Their Association With Women’s Reproductive Health and Fertility Behavior in Pakistan: Secondary Data Analysis From Demographic and Health Surveys, 1990–2018

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