Junction News Anniversary : First Cousin Marriage in Britain

Originally posted in August of last year this post dealt with the thorny issue of first cousin marriage among the Pakistani community in Britain. It was written based on information contained in Channel 4's dispatches series. 

A fascinating documentary on Britain's Channel 4 last night (available on 4OD for British and Irish residents) shed light on the common practice of first cousin marriage in the British Pakistani population. The reporter Tazeen Ahmed documents her family's story on the Channel 4 website also. Her grand-parents were first cousins. Four of her uncles were deaf and her mother was the only daughter of 6 to survive past being a toddler.

Despite making up just 1.5% of the population a third of all children born with rare genetic conditions are ethnic Pakistanis. A half of all Pakistani's in Britain marry their first cousins. A child born to first cousin parents is ten times more likely to be born with recessive genetic disorders including deafness, blindness and child mortality. Cultures in Bangladesh, West Africa and the Middle East also partake in the practice but generally to a much lesser extent.

First-Cousin Marriage and the Case of the British Pakistanis

A fascinating documentary on Britain's Channel 4 last night (available on 4OD for British and Irish residents) shed light on the common practice of first cousin marriage in the British Pakistani population. The reporter Tazeen Ahmed documents her family's story on the Channel 4 website also. Her grand-parents were first cousins. Four of her uncles were deaf and her mother was the only daughter of 6 to survive past being a toddler.

Despite making up just 1.5% of the population a third of all children born with rare genetic conditions are ethnic Pakistanis. A half of all Pakistani's in Britain marry their first cousins. A child born to first cousin parents is ten times more likely to be born with recessive genetic disorders including deafness, blindness and child mortality. Cultures in Bangladesh, West Africa and the Middle East also partake in the practice but generally to a much lesser extent.

Disaster Continues in Pakistan

Starting last week the news wires broke the story of the torrential floods in Pakisatan. The TV and internet showed reports of catastrophic waves of water literally submerging vast expanses of land and claiming the lives of hundreds of citizens.

At the same time the news networks over here were running the story of the Pakistani President's trips to Europe including a much publicised meeting with the British Prime Minister David Cameron after his recent visit to India where he claimed Pakistan was a supporting terrorists in its borders, something that drew significant dissent from the Government in Pakistan. One interviewee speaking on Sky News claimed that President Zadari's trip in terms of the scale of the disaster would have been something akin  to George W Bush talking his whole Senate on holiday during the Katrina disaster.