Pakistani cricketer Babar Azam who was accused of sexual abuse earlier is set marry his own cousin sister next year. Babur is slated to marry his uncle’s daughter next year. The two families arranged the marriage with the consent of the two cousins.

Babar Azam, the Pakistani cricket captain, was earlier accused of sexual abuse. A woman accused Babur of sexually abusing her and also threatening her. The woman claimed that Babur abused her sexually for 10 years on the pretext of marriage, but he reneged on his promise to marry her.

The woman also claimed that he allegedly impregnated her and refused to marry her. She claimed that when she became pregnant, Babur beat her up and threatened to kill her. She also claimed that she lived inthe same locality and studied in the same school as Babur.

Marrying First Cousins In Pakistan Attributed To Genetic Disorders & Rare Mental Diseases

It is pertinent to note here that marrying one’s own first cousins is a common practice in Pakistan and Bangladesh as Islam allows consanguine marriages, which are banned in other major faiths in the world.

A detailed blog on the rare mental diseases and genetic disorders occurrence due to marrying first cousins in Pakistan by Syeda Sadia Shahid argues for banning this practice in Pakistan. Following is some relevant excerpts from the blog.

Major cause of rare genetic disorders is attributed to intra-family marriages. First-cousin marriages have a higher risk of genetic diseases and intra-family marriages are too common in Pakistan.

There are more than 100 groups of disorders that pass through genes when close intra-family marriages happen. Culturally and historically, marriages between cousins are too common in Pakistan and these disorders keep on passing through genes to the next generation. Around 70% of marriages in Pakistan are cousin marriages or consanguineous marriages and every year hundreds of cases of genetic disorders emerge.

Harmful diseases are passed onto new-borns which must be banned and declared as criminal negligence. In recent years, more than 50 children died due to the genetic disorders that emerged in first-cousin marriages. In 2019, three brothers were brought to a hospital for treatment of some disability. The family they hailed from did not believe in marrying outside their family. In Pakistan several families mandatorily marry their children to first cousins only and do not allow them to marry outside their family.

Surprisingly, even well to do educated families in Pakistan marry within their families despite knowing about the dangers of genetic diseases and mental diseases. Perhaps this is why they are more prone to violence and get easily swayed to kill in the name of Jihad as Pakistan is home to largest number of terrorist organisations in the world.

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