Marriage between Close Relatives and Health Problems

Written by: Muhammad Arif Rahimi

In Afghanistan, several families marry children to their close relatives like nephews, nieces, and cousins to make their relations stronger and more stable but they are not aware of the bad consequences of such marriages.
AEPO’s writer/producer has talked to some people and doctors about this issue.

Yusuf, a resident of Nangarhar province says, “One of our neighbors has married his cousin and his all child are paralyzed.”

A woman from Takhar province says, “I have married my cousin. My four children had died. The first two were always suffering from diarrhea and the stomach of each of them was swollen and finally, they both died of the same problem.  I aborted two children before delivery.

Now I have 3 children and they are also suffering from stomach inflammation.”
Doctor Shahnawaz Mandozai, an internist at Indira Gandhi Children’s hospital in Kabul city says, “Research has shown that the chances of having physical and mental health problems among children whose parents are close relatives are much higher than being strangers.

Most people who marry their children to cousins, nephews and so on, their genes are incomplete. Incomplete genes do not combine well with the blood of close relatives, but they get worse and cause the baby to be born with a kind of defect; having a hole in heart; mental retardation; thalassemia, and other diseases.”

How do people find the solution for this issue?

Hazratgul, a resident of Ghazni province says, “We are 4 brothers and we live together. I have five nieces but I have not married any of them to my son. If my other close relatives propose my daughters, I deny and aware them from the bad consequences of such marriages.”

Wais Muhammad, a resident of Nangarhar province says, “My brother has married his cousin. They had a medical checkup before their marriage and the doctor suggested them to get married.”

What do people could prevent this kind of marriages?

Muhamad Yusuf, a resident of Nangarhar province says, “I wanted to marry my cousin but my grandmother prevented me and then I married a strange girl and my all children are safe and sound and they have good talent.”
Hazratgul says, “The people who married strangers, they do not worry about the future of their children and none of them are faced with any kind of health problems.”