In 2011, it was estimated that intra-familial unions made up up to 20-50% of all marriages in North Africa, Middle East and West Asia. Besides Muslims, some
Jews and
Arab Christians in the Middle East have a history of cousin marriage. In addition, some Muslim groups living outside the Middle East, such as expatriate Pakistanis living in England, also practice consanguineous marriage.
Arabian Peninsula Raphael Patai reports that in central
Arabia, no relaxation of a man's right to the father's brother's daughter (FBD, or paternal female cousin) seems to have taken place in the past hundred years before his 1962 work. Here, the girl is not forced to marry her paternal male cousin, but she cannot marry another unless he gives consent. Among the Jews of Yemen, this rule was also followed, albeit not as rigidly. In northern Arabia the custom is very strong and any outsider wishing to marry a woman must first come to the paternal male cousin, ask his permission, and pay him what he wants, and a man who marries off his daughter without the consent of the paternal male cousin
may be killed by family members. The right of the paternal male cousin is such that a
shaykh or elder may not be able to prevail against it. Among the
Bedouin, it can happen that a paternal male cousin can lodge a complaint after the marriage has taken place, compelling the father to reimburse the bride price or have the marriage annulled. If the paternal male cousin cannot marry his paternal female cousin immediately due to financial or other considerations, the paternal male cousin can also "reserve" her by making a public and formal statement of his intentions to marry her at a future date. A more distant relative acquires priority to marry a girl over her paternal male cousin by reserving her soon after her birth. In
Kuwait, 22.5-64.3% of marriages are consanguineous according to a 2009 study in the journal
Reproductive Health. The same study found that the rate in
Bahrain was 39-45% of marriages, 56.3% in
Oman, and 54% in
Qatar.
Egypt As of 2016, about 40% of marriages in Egypt were between cousins. Another source (
Reproductive Health) puts the figure at 20.9-32.8% for marriages between blood-related partners as of 2009. In Egypt, cousin marriage may have been even more prevalent than in Arabia in past periods, with one source from the 1830s observing that it was common among Egyptian Arabs and native Egyptian Muslims, but less so in Cairo, where first cousin marriage accounts for 35 percent of marriages. Reportedly, the husband and wife would continue to call each other "cousin" because the tie of blood was seen as indissoluble, while the marriage was not. In the upper and middle classes, the young man was seldom allowed to see the face of his female cousin after she reached puberty. Cousin marriage is not only practiced by Muslims, but also by some Egyptian
Copts in the past, although at a lesser rate (approximately 7-12% of all Coptic marriages). However, despite centuries of most Copts abstaining from cousin marriages, the Coptic Church in 2024 launched an initiative to ban relative marriages completely due to potential health risks. Estimates from the late 19th and early 20th century state variously that either 80 percent of the Egyptian
fellahin marry first cousins or two-thirds marry them if they exist. Cousin marriage was also practiced in the
Sinai Peninsula, where a girl is sometimes reserved by her cousin with money long before puberty, and among Bedouins in the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea. Cousin marriage was practiced in Medina during Muhammad's time, but out of 113 recorded marriages in one sample, only 15 were between paternal cousins of any degree.
Iran Cousin marriages are decreasing among Iranians. Since the
Pahlavi era, fewer Iranians have practised cousin marriages. There is a strong preference for marrying a first cousin, but no specific preference for the father's brother's daughter. For the quarter of women married after age 21, it was found that the incidence of consanguinity declined to 28%. Additionally, the proportion of cousin marriage among urban families stayed constant: it was only rural families that drove the increase. For all periods, the proportion of cousin marriage among highly educated women was somewhat lower than among uneducated women. It is hypothesized that decreases in infant mortality during the period may have created a larger pool of eligible cousins to marry.
Iraq 47-60% of marriages in Iraq are consanguineous, according to a 2009 study in the journal
Reproductive Health, The uncle of the girl – or father of the boy – assigns or reserves his niece to his son at an early age, the parents from both families arrange for the marriage usually early. This is usually done to preserve wealth in the family and is more common in rural areas. Among the Jews of Iraq, if the cousin cannot be persuaded to forgo his rights, then he is paid a sum of money by the girl's father. Among the Kurdish
Hamawand tribe, the paternal male cousin must give his consent for the marriage to take place, though in the southern Kurdish regions, the cousin's right is not as strongly emphasized. Among Arabs in Iraq, the cousin right has also traditionally prevailed. Barth finds in his study of southern Kurdistan that in tribal villages, 57% of all marriages were cousin marriages (48% ''bint 'amm
marriages), while in a nontribal village made up of recent immigrant families, only 17% were cousin marriages (13% bint 'amm'').
Levant Jordan 28.5-63.7% of marriages in Jordan are consanguineous according to a 2009 study in the journal
Reproductive Health. In Lebanon, first-cousin marriage rates differ among religious affiliations, as it is found to be 17% for Christians and 30% for Muslims throughout the past century; however, first-cousin marriage is declining among all marriages in Lebanon.
Syria 30-40% of marriages in Syria are consanguineous as of 2009. In her discussion of the city of
Aleppo during the Ottoman Empire, Meriwether finds a rate of cousin marriage among the elite of 24%. Father's brother's daughter was most common but still only represented 38% of all cousin marriages, while 62% were with first or second cousins. But most families had either no cousin marriages or only one, while for a few the rate was as high as 70%. Cousin marriage rates were higher among women, merchant families, and older, well-established families. Meriwether cites one case of cousin marriage increasing in a prominent family as it consolidated its position and forging new alliances became less critical. Marriage patterns among the elite were, however, always diverse and cousin marriage was only one option of many. Rates were probably lower among the general population.
Palestinian Citizens of Israel A 1984 study of consanguineous (primarily first cousin) marriages among the Arab population in rural Western Galilee found it occurred among 49% of
Druze, 40% Muslims, and 29% of Christians. A 1990–92 study of all of Israel found similar results: 47% among
Druze, 42% among Palestinian Muslims, and 22% among Palestinian Christians.
Palestine In the Palestinian village of
Artas in the 1920s, 13.3% of marriages, were paternal male cousin marriages; 26.1%, were cousin marriages.
Turkey In Turkey the rate of consanguineous marriages based on previous studies is around 1 in 5 marriages, where most cases of consanguineous marriage are found commonly in rural Turkey and Eastern Anatolia regions of Turkey where the population is mainly
Kurdish.
Outside the Middle East Consanguineous marriages are also notably high in some countries or regions outside of the Middle East.
Caucasus In the
Southern Caucasus, cousin marriages usually happen among ethnically related minorities such as
Tats,
Talysh and
Mountain Jews, whereas among the neighboring
Armenians and
Georgians, It is considered a social taboo to marry up to seventh generation cousin, however, the practice is common among the
Yazidi communities living in these counties. The Azerbaijani Parliament passed amendments to the Family Code in June 2025, prohibiting consanguineous marriages. Under the new changes, which will come into effect in July 2025, individuals with common grandparents will be barred from marrying. In the
Northern Caucasus, cousin marriages only happen among the ethnicities of
Dagestan, while the ethnicities of the rest of the neighboring North Caucasian republics hold similar taboo to these of their counterparts in
Armenia and
Georgia.
Sub-Saharan Africa In the Malian town of
Timbuctoo, a field investigator found that among the Arabs, one-third of marriages are with first cousins. Half of these are with the father's brother's daughter and slightly fewer with the mother's brother's daughter. It is possible that the high MBD marriage rate is the result of
Songhai influence, one group of which prefers the MBD type and shuns the FBD type, and another group of which has a preference for both. The third ethnic group of Timbuctoo is the Bela, who are Tuareg slaves, and among whom marriage between cross cousins is preferred in principle, though in practice, FBD marriage also occurs. The pattern of inheritance of genetic abnormalities in Afghanistan has a significant impact on prevalence. Autosomal recessive genetic abnormalities were observed in most and, 75.4% of the total reported cases, followed by autosomal dominant 19.7%. The main reason behind the high percentage of autosomal recessive conditions is the union between groups of people known to share genetic traits inherited from one or more common ancestors. Hereditary disorder might be one of the fundamental causes of the high death rate in Afghanistan. Based on this study, infants under the age of 2 years are mostly experiencing metabolic disorders and their frequency is up to 38.9%, followed by children in the age group 3–11 years (22.2%). Adolescents have comparatively less percentage (12.5%), but with diverse genetic anomalies, and adults have a high percentage (25.0%) of various genetic disorders, while older people (1.4%) are only affected by neurological disorders. In
Pakistan, cousin marriage is legal and common for economic, religious and cultural reasons. Consanguineous marriage in Pakistan was reported to be higher than 60% of the population in 2014. In some areas, higher proportion of first-cousin marriages in Pakistan has been noted to be the cause of an increased rate of blood disorders in the population. According to a 2005 BBC report on Pakistani marriage in the United Kingdom, 55% of
British Pakistanis marry a first cousin.
The BMJ reports in 2024 that young Pakistanis are moving away from cousin marriage due to an increasing awareness of genetic diseases, with the rate decreasing from 67.9% in 2006-07 to 63.6% in 2018. More educated and financially independent men and women show sharper decreases. In
India, consanguineous marriage is seen mostly among first-cousins, and mostly practiced in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, except Kerala. The overall prevalence of consanguineous marriage was 9.9%; the South region (23%) and North-East region (3.1%) showed the highest and lowest prevalence, respectively. Muslims had a higher prevalence (15%) than Hindus (9%). The prevalence of first cousin marriage (8.7%) was more than that of second cousin (0.7%) and of uncle-niece marriages (0.6%). == Social aspects ==