My Parents Are Cousins (Family Documentary) | Real Stories

[Applause] Marcin has a rare genetic disease which is gradually destroying his body he was born with it because his mother and father are first cousins more than half of British Pakistanis marry their first cousins tonight on dispatches the tragic consequences of a cultural practice that is devastating children's lives [Music] Marcin Arthur is 17 years old and lives with his family in Bradford he's the second of six children he's blind he can't walk properly and needs round-the-clock care [Music] about the epital theatre caricature on eagerly legged in hmm Marcin is losing his hearing his speech is seriously impaired and he understands little of what's happening around him Marcin is obsessed with the idea of driving not realising this will never be possible Mawson's younger sister henna is 13 she's the Arthur's fourth child her sister Zeinab is 11 both sisters have inherited the same disease as Marcin they can neither see nor hear all three children have an extremely rare genetic disorder called nuclear doses type for their bodies cannot get rid of waste products properly affecting everyday brain function from vision to movement this cathode as a light on or off this cottage up there the potential consequences of first cousin marriages are tragic and devastating my grandparents are first cousins five of their daughters died in childhood and three of my uncle's were born death at the time no one knew why because the facts were not known today the medical facts are established but the practice continues here in Bradford where the actors live 75% of Pakistanis married their first cousins anywhere between four and ten percent of the children in these families will be born with genetic abnormalities and these illnesses are often fatal one-third of children with diseases caused by recessive genes will die before they turn five the disease affecting Marsan henna and Zeinab is the direct result of their mother and father being first cousins both parents carry the recessive gene that has caused the children's disabilities if they had married outside of the family there would have been only a tiny chance of their children being born with the genetic disorder but in the case of doctors as first cousins the odds narrowed dramatically to a one in four chance that any child they had would be born with the illness in the event three of their six children were born with the disease Fatima is the youngest and healthy she's seven years old and has had to watch her siblings deteriorate over the years so what's it like nipping having two sister fun what's the best bit I played together what's the most difficult bit you like one day cry it crying and it cost them to thank you upset it like you attack desert Miatas ad particle chatter Magister is Sumer cappuccino Changi versio so Tanaka mega-rich Lhasa to miss Roberta budgeting like a guard ESA or katana whose cousin Jake bought boom academy blind or to come how do you feel what do Kotecki okay which are both not welcome there between our mulatto top Nagar karate rocket ke saath saath abnormality age-wise imagine both Michaelmas or anna like a same conquering ideal over in birmingham home to one of the largest pakistani communities in britain 50% marry their first cousins the children born into these families are 10 times more likely to be born with recessive genetic disorders and one in 10 of those will die in infancy or suffer of chronic disability doctors and Birmingham have grave concerns about cousin marriages or as they call it consanguinity dr. David Milford is a renal specialist at the Birmingham Children's Hospital he says the problem is on the rise what kind of impact to first cousin marriages have you seen in this hospital in my own specialty which is children's kidneys we've seen from national data comparing figures from 2004 to recent figures 2008 2009 we've seen that the proportion of cantankerous relations with genetic disease we've seen that increase from about 17 percent to 21 percent so certainly in our own very small specialty area we have seen a change most of the cantankerous marriages are within Muslim Pakistani and Bangladeshi families so for us it's wherever populations of those origins where they are concentrated that's where we see the highest enough amount of genetic disease what kind of pressure do these cases put on the resources that you have we see some children with very serious disease we've had children who presented soon after birth with kidney failure requiring artificial kidney treatment and they then go on to require kidney and liver transplantation to correct their genetic defect and then we see other children who are more mildly affected who have some degree of kidney impairment but not enough to require artificial kidney treatment or transplantation so it's quite variable a major report published in 2008 shows that one-third of all children suffering from rare genetic diseases are british pakistani yet they only make up one and a half percent of the total population [Music] more than 70 published British scientific studies have shown that cousin marriages lead to an increased chance of having a child born with a rare genetic disorder a significant number of these children will have serious kidney or liver problems love medicine there was a carnitine offer kind of a route to attend ideally these are one of other day not carnitine evolved that they are not and there was some more there don't basically all for the liver basically cosmic Mehmood lives in Nelson Lancashire he's 17 years old and lives with his mum Praveen he has to take a powerful cocktail of medications to help him get through his day sometimes as many as 11 tablets at a time he has a rare genetic condition called propionic acid emia he lacks an enzyme that breaks down protein in the body azmuth was diagnosed at fifteen months old and was one of the youngest children in the UK ever to have a liver transplant these these medicines are a lot strong so it you can it can make your behalf for some time so a lot of medicines of work if if I don't have them then I can feel a bit weird since I'm not know myself so it is important to have them when Hasmukh was first diagnosed his doctors told Praveen that his rare liver condition was hereditary by marrying her first cousin she and her husband increased the chances of passing the disease on to their children Lovejoy's transplant god bless it was running were born just a wasn't drinking his milk and things and lethargic so i did some tests you know when that's when they found out when there was something not right well at first they said there was no cure and then because i kept pushing it whenever time went to the clinic i said there must be something you can do and they said well we can't try a liver transplant but there's no it's not hundred percent guarantee it's going to work asthma's rare condition is progressive and his body is slowly deteriorating this one bled this one's more weaker this is wearing go I'm not serious but I started getting worse like you know I got pains and stuff and as you can see it as it's much smaller this one's very small whereas this feels more stronger not sleeping and stuff windows and sleep on the side it could hurt sometimes I must a massage it all the time ah nicely isn't it thanks them did you make it yourself managed cool they haven't been doing a liver transplants that long in children for them to know how long will it it will last but I try not to think about that cousin marriages have been a long-established cultural tradition amongst many British Pakistani families but is not just within this community in the past the British royal family married their first cousins to today though it is mostly Pakistani Bangladeshi and some Middle Eastern and East African families that continues a custom shefket Mirza is a journalist and has lived in Sheffield with his family for the last thirty years he invited me to his local community center to meet friends some of whom are married to their first cousins they said they've never experienced any health problems what's your view about cousin marriages for 800 years we are we prefer to marry within our families may not be the first cousin may be the second cousin or third cousin but we've many I am married for last 25 years successfully with my first cousin and I've got five children thanks to Allah subhana WA Ta'ala that they are all fine and well married to my first cousin you know I've seen many benefits of it you're in the same circle of relatives as your partner and they were real understanding and often probably call that extra mile my wife is my mother's sister's daughter yeah we are close it but all right thank you nice well how do I just want to thank you my children all through your health so would you encourage your children tonight if they want to shefket has been married to his first cousin as Shazia hanim for 35 years Oh mangoes [Music] his mum and dad Farnam Begum and Ali Bahadur are also first cousins chef cat's eldest son Imran has continued the family tradition and just married his first cousin in Pakistan that's three generations of first cousin marriage before the capital is a shoddy Garrido fake a hammy eggy eggy oppose me under the adulty acclivity a the aggregate income tax in data Mart a medieval email to periodically promises katya or pas ask RK a foreign pointier in given composure okay it's go get acclivity a to me 4.0 ECE is in quote your upper cylinder do give your embarks on occurring warming i'm the demons again it's a very happy atmosphere for example at weekends all the families get together at this house and we called ourselves like white house you know everybody's calling to this Parliament and they would have food together they would have charts together happy about Monty yeah Jose Caban by your telomere CPR content or his city was adding another Gitano Goro Tomita Johnny need it before 10:30 Mary pass on up take Paula kerger could won't be the needle body a toast enormous annuity ok I'm rested aureus UTI be envious a logic to stake a guardian we haven't seen any negativity in it so therefore we are all for it although between four and ten percent of the children of first cousins are at a high risk of recessive disorders people who support cousin marriages say this means that ninety to ninety six percent of the time the children will be healthy people outside the Asian community of the Pakistani community would say well why would you wanna marry your cousin you know there are health risks and also you know look outside they won't quite get air you know they see the complete different way well so that we wouldn't you in America not why would you but wouldn't you mean all right there's the points of the health risk but then dizzy at heart is where you know the family my children had no biological disadvantage because we are first cousins and by the way I [Music] will not scrub them at least five research papers show cousin marriages are on the rise in the UK and have been increasing for the last three decades on the streets though we found quite a number of British Pakistanis who thought the practice was wrong and suggested that young people only went along with it because of family pressure I personally think it's wrong I mean like everything the side right but first cousin my it's a bit wrong I think it's a bit incest to be honest when it comes to sleeping you think no chance I can't do it but it's like sleep here with you with it you know I mean it's just however that is so what kind of pressure do you think there is people to lie the customers black milk I think it's mother goes or I'm gonna you know I'm is the we call it drama bazi where they will they'll say you know better please marry this girl please my you know you know my isn't which is nihilistic my whole new is on it but mostly most of the cousin lounges are forced manages I mean to be honest most of the girls get forced into it all most of the boys get forced into it dad would come home and say to your sister right so and so again like why because he's your cousin sit brother or some Anana and then the girl has to say yes I mean she's got no other choice machine when you say force you mean they pick on they won't say well what was the word emotionally blackmail they've been to lower your parents we did all this for year blah blah blah we came to this country yeah you can't do this it's your turn now we've done we've do now movin in that position not yet hopefully not most first cousin marriages in the UK are between british pakistani 'he's a change in immigration law has made a harder to marry a spouse for abroad however first cousins are sometimes still brought in from pakistan the government's forced marriage unit says they deal with 1500 cases a year half a link to pakistan some involve young british men and women who are pressurised into marrying the first cousins against their will how did you feel about that the time really angry because I wasn't asked it wasn't even considered I was very very angry I met Sarah who is British but married her first cousin from Pakistan she asked us to hide her identity we met when I went to Pakistan with my family and then a couple of weeks later I was told that I was going to engage to him I refused to marry him it was about two weeks before we were due to get married were you forced into it I was emotionally blackmailed yeah I was my husband's family they went on hunger strike they said we going to commit suicide this that it was a matter of their honour because I've been engaged to my cousin for a long time and so was they kind of emotionally blackmailed into it it's still going on my friend she was married to her cousin and money got involved and they went to Pakistan to sort situation out and they were in court and as she was walking out of court her husband shot her she was pregnant at the time people out there it's just frightening were you ever weren't worried about anything like that happening yes yeah I am and in the future of that happening first cousin marriages can end in tragedy just recently a British couple was shot dead in Pakistan here in the UK the bigger problem is the medical issue in part two we discover people are denying the health risks of cousin marriages in Bradford at the after family home life is unbearably difficult Marcin feels constantly frustrated his two sisters henna and Zeinab are unable to look after themselves and their sight and hearing is getting worse their parents find it hard to come to terms with the idea that as first cousins they pass down a gene that cools their children's terrible disabilities what is the doctor that she told you about this you told you that it's it could be anything to do with the father you two are first cousins yes they told this is a genetic disease but I don't think this right but they told us my other my other brother he got to marry with her sisters and he got five children all of them perfectly right there's no disability with them man took a theorem Shirou say the Rotato marry by gesture on anything but a normal t-shirt say hello Nikita routine tea but Tokyo techne TK Haruka's by Mohammed acaba Jana Chikara Roca dr. K divine and a decayed Apache sravya convertible canard multimeter a Batak mam mudha zucchini attic a mere Bautista or chicken cobb Liam Columbus America smart meter Z as much some families cool at fate however doctors are in no doubt about the cause while an average Children's Hospital will see 20 to 30 different recessive genetic disorders over a decade in Bradford one Children's Hospital alone has seen a hundred and sixty-five consequently Bradford NHS hospitals Trust has initiated one of the world's most comprehensive studies looking at the health of 14 thousand babies over the next 20 years at the same time establishing the full medical consequences of cousin marriage on children's well-being professor Marcus Pembry is a former government advisor on genetic health and a clinical geneticist for any particular gene you get two copies one for your mother and one from your father if you have a single defective gene or mutation as we call it there's no outward manifestation and this can just be passed from parents to children to children two grandchildren with no effect it's only when both parents happen to be carriers and then there is a 25% chance that a child would get the double dose they have no normal gene and they suffer from the disease first cousins share grandparents and if you imagine that a rare recessive mutation single copy in a one of the grandparents there is then not unusual for it to be passed on to both grandparents children and then on to their offspring who are other cousin on the average if you're a carrier then there's a 1/8 chance 12.5% chance that your first cousin would also be carrying that gene as Matt helps out in his mum's school and baby we're shop when he's not a college he works on the shop floor deals with customers and man's the turn and very protective of Elizabeth he's like more like home I would say 14 year old and an 18 year old meant clay you know it comes with me you know is on holiday it comes with with me to work yeah okay keep an eye on him and things you got tiny detour every time because customers are always on deciding it when they just put them back so you bought some there's somewhere to do any I can I get bored busy here's something instead of to study not till all town despite what Osmonds mom has been told about the cause of his illness she struggles to accept it I don't think there's anything wrong in first cousin marriages because it's all culture and it's the norm really but Ivan said that I want to it did put me off having more to my ex-husband now what you know because I couldn't go through that again having another child with the same problem the thing is though it's not guaranteed it's gonna happen or it's not high risk it's one in four but it could be like this one in four it's like three could be okay yeah just think it was one of those things because my daughter she's fine yeah what's up what we bought as Matt's older sister Saira also lives at home and helps out at the shop when she carried up when I was young I couldn't understand well why was I born perfectly fine and stuff I'm up with a hard of condition and things like that a lot of families think it's just look yeah they look you know the way it's meant to be a God's Will has this air that's how it is perceived I think [Music] in Sheffield when I talked the local community some did accept the medical evidence but others fell to any criticism of cousin marriages was an attack on British Pakistani 's the community does feel that it's being targeted all the time of the many whether that be through the prevent agenda force marriages the first cousin marriages now and the communities like button down it searches and not wanting to engage not wanting to you know share the experiences and you know it does feel like you know we're drowning in all sorts of attacks here I don't see any reason any high prevalence of a particular disease in Pakistan where people have been married from centuries to the first cousins it's scientifically there's an evidence that you know children are being born with disabilities from first cousin marriages if that is true and evidence is there then obviously identifying the issue and then basically raising awareness amongst the communities that is something I feel it needs to happen they should talk about it but is how you talk about it if you make it it should make it a general thing rather than targeting a certain community people in the committee gonna hold the hand up say Oh OHS again is really about that we should really seriously to think about that because coming generation they are suffering the consequences of cousin marriages are a major public health issue it costs the NHS many millions and has huge implications for other services a government study shows that British Pakistani czar three times more likely to have children with learning disabilities than the general population and it costs nearly a quarter of a million pounds a year to care for each child so what are politicians doing we approached sixteen MPs with a significant number of British Pakistani constituents for an interview all of them declined we also asked 30 MPs communities to give dev use in a survey only one who wanted to an anonymous replied he didn't answer the survey but told us it is a subject which evokes very strong emotional responses and anybody seeking to raise a subject even by way of giving professional medical advice runs the risk of being attacked by individuals who have their own agenda often political one politician who would talk to us was former MP for Keithley in West Yorkshire and Cryer she's been criticized in the past for trying to discuss the health problems caused by cousin marriages do you see it then first and foremost as a public health issue rather than an issue about the community that one has to tiptoe away it's a public health issue and we deal with public health issues by raising awareness by talking about the subject such as obesity searches drug addiction such as alcohol but for some reason we're told that we mustn't talk about custom marriages because this is a sensitive issue now I think that's absurd we have to talk about this issue in order to find solutions and you're a lone voice alone public voice for willing to talk about this why are there so few politicians prepared to come forward and say look we need to tackle this I think it's fear that they'll be accused of either racism or demonization or whatever and therefore to keep the head below the parapet and don't say things on this issue it is partly about getting votes and securing those votes and not not offending the leadership of these communities one birmingham councillor backs the idea of open discussion salma Jakub believes the key to tackling the problem lies in the way you talk about cousin marriages why do you think it is that people feel so stigmatized why would they talk about it's just far too sensitive and I think after 9/11 Muslims have felt that they've been stereotyped demonized to see and through this lens of terrorism seen as a problematic community so any disco and Muslims is to do with some negative issue so this issue for example which is a health issue if it's framed around well why aren't these people stopping doing what they're doing in the face of Western scientific evidence of course people are going to be defensive as if it's well here's what the evidence is people can now make informed choices and don't politicize it in the way that we talk about it and see it as a a straightforward health issue to deal with our search and I feel we will have a very different discussion around it Islamic experts say that Islam neither prohibits nor encourages cousin marriages some argue though that if changes to happen community and religious leaders need to get on board but Maulana Manav Allison a religious scholar in the West Midlands does not accept that there is a problem 30 percent of children with rare diseases are from British Pakistani families what's your response to that kind of statistic what is the I will ask what is the percentage in other communities but mallanna you know doctors are saying that there's a link families who are suffering from this who are first cousins who are British British Pakistani Muslims saying there's a link the specialists in this area is saying that there's a link why are you not accepting that well I don't have any knowledge on in that regard look I have a whole I mean you know reams and reams of evidence health scientific evidence that proves that there's a link and you're still denying it know what I said I don't have knowledge on that well if I gave you the evidence and you look through it and you felt that it was convincing what would you do about it I don't think I will be able to do anything on that regard Islamic Lee I do not see any problem getting married to the first cousin maybe no islamically but medically there's a problem why we are talking about only Islam Muslims getting married to the first person then say if we find the same problem in other communities also then it is a equivalent so it is not because of the first cousin marriage so it is a normally case first cousin marriage it's just not because necessarily they're Pakistani or they're white or they're black or there any other ethnic group it's because they're first cousins and that is a much higher occurrence of that happening within the Pakistani community because there's a tradition of marrying first cousins okay well as I said early on I don't have any research on that topic so I want to be able to say anything well if I give you this research and you look through it so well I wouldn't mind looking through it and if you were convinced by it what would you do about it I will decide after when I am convinced we sent him the medical papers and haven't heard back yet it's a bit hard actually to tackle issues of these children I don't know what is their future how they will live even if we are not here in part three we ask if children like the actors are paying the price of political correctness because health workers and politicians are afraid of being labeled racist difficult life [Music] with scientific research showing that first cousins who marry are doubling their chances of having children with rare diseases why is there so little awareness of this in the wider British population Sonya and Wayne Gibbs invited me to their family home they've been together for 16 years Wayne is Sonya's dad's cousin making them first cousins once removed something that never struck them as a problem their child Nicole died of juvenile osteopetrosis a genetic disease that causes the bones to thicken and crushed the body's organs they were told it was because they both carried recessive genes so as parents to sort of go from home what you thought was a perfectly healthy normal baby how did that feel up soon feel absolutely helpless because we know there's just not a thing you can do did you decide to have a third child or that well we went through obviously genetic counseling what they call new cuz obviously we want to know you know can we have any more children for that test for you with absolutely vital there was no way we was gonna even you know have another child if there was no tests out there that could help but enough scientists were stuck that Nathan never brilliant and now you've got two very healthy care be very healthy boys do you think that people who are cousins and are thinking about getting married and at some point having children do you think they should test themselves at that stage definitely absolutely it will save them so much heartache in the long work at least then they know that they are gonna have a healthy child four couples like Wayne and Sonya going through genetic counseling helps establish risks and offers possible solutions the option of a termination or IVF to implant a healthy embryo but only 40 percent of genes causing recessive disorders can be tested for meaning the genetic slink has its limits and yet there is no national public health campaign about cousin marriages the risks are not taught in schools and there is no government leaflet in campaign in hospitals all doctor surgeries as there would be about other diseases affecting children the last big campaign on cousin marriages was 13 years ago in Birmingham when the health risks were brought to public attention dr. Jackie chambers the director of health in the city explains how some British Pakistanis opposed the initiative what was the reaction to your campaign at the time well I think the reaction was quite mixed we did get some support from some religious leaders and from some communities and for about two years we were within the context of promoting healthy mothers and healthy babies getting some awareness of of the message about the additional risks we found out subsequently that there was also quite a hostile undercurrent people were tearing up our leaflets and they were also putting counter messages across in terms of what was seen as an attack on on those communities with the campaign provoking such a negative response it wasn't repeated now normal practice is to advise individual families most at risk rather than high-profile national health programs discouraging cousin marriage professor Marcus Pembry feels that targeting families individually rather than issuing national public health initiatives is the way forward you are against the idea of it being a public health issue but many people we've spoken to many doctors and people who work with local authorities say that the cost the NHS is absolutely enormous and therefore we need to make our public health issue so as to reduce the problem of course we have to tackle it but it's not like smoking where people want to smoke and the public health campaign is trying to stop them smoking these families don't want to have children with these diseases we're all on the same side they just need help they're not going to change their coz marriage straightaway because it's part and parcel there there community and that community is very supportive of them what they want is help with these specific genetic disorders and with the new technology where if there's political will we're not we're not wanting the politicians to say things what we wanted to do is understand that we need funding for the services that we'll provide genetic counseling in Birmingham and they're introducing a new system a confidential register of families most at risk of recessive disorders is being drawn up they will be offered counseling and genetic testing which has hoped will reduce the number of children born with disabilities by half over the next decade if it works the plan is for the government to roll this out to cities such as Bradford and London however British Pakistani doctors at one GP practice in Birmingham have set themselves apart from other health professionals by openly discouraging cousin marriage their surgery is one of the few in the country to take this radical approach at the same time they've introduced genetic screening and testing for common blood disorders such as thalassemia for all of their patients really I just wanted to speak to you again and talk to you about cell anemia and the transmission today dr. Rizwan alladhina himself a British Pakistani is genetically counseling wholesome [ __ ] who is originally from East Africa and married to her first cousin Kusum is a thalassemia carrier she has one healthy baby but wants more children so you would either pass on the normal one or the one with fantasy Mia and same with your husband as well so in terms of combinations this is the dangerous combination when the child has both sellers Imogene and that child would be thalassemia major child but that is one unfortunate okay the other possibilities are the children being carriers which helping patients make informed choices as a priority for doctor alladhina he says he's done this with the help of local religious leaders just taken a good time off about almost 20 years to change attitudes getting the support of the clergy that is the key I think at the end of the day if you do not have the support of the religious leadership within your community particularly in a Muslim community then your message is not going to get through this is not an attack on Islam it is not an attack on Islamic principles or its fundamentals it is merely concerns from fellow Muslims regarding health risks it is fine to marry your cousin as long as you know the risks that you're taking and as long as you get yourself tested and you're not in an affected partnership but then if you look at the amount of genetic illnesses that there are actually there you can't test for everything so the sensible thing would be to say if you can avoid these these partnerships then it's actually better Allah [Music] Oh we can do married with first cousin according to Sharia it is cleared I myself marry with my first cousin my two brother also and many other people in my audience but the reports are in favor that first cousin marriage is the result of disability children so these are the reports which they showed me I agree with them okay Imam Sadiq Qureshi is the director of the mineral Quran international mosque in Forest Gate London he's married to his first cousin and has two daughters one of his children was born with a form of inherited deafness the other suffers from a rare recessive disorder called mobile bone disease he regularly tackles health issues in his Friday sermons and isn't afraid to talk about cousin marriages it's very clear cousin marriage is permissible in Islam it is not you can say you must do that or you must not do that these are the suggestions guidelines so what would you say based on your personal experience what would you say to you at the people who come to this mosque I must say as a religious scholar that people must think on this issue and people get awareness people must learn go to the GP is to go to their consultant and they must learn about the couple they are intending marry marriage with their cousin they must think before they are taking their decision if they feel any symptoms any genes okay so they must test their selves before marriage in future might be they get a big situation now in this country there are many facilities so they must go for the tests and then that will be that will be better for their future according to Islamic viewpoint this is the big jihad to bring the health full society it is a big jihad of this time azmuth and mum are at the hospital for his latest checkup 156 - the doctors need to see him once every six months to monitor his health this time the news isn't good when I'm playing my friends I've got tidies let my legs get ideas both legs yeah he's been having pains in my arms being is being carrying on it's not it's got a lot more weaker feel then he closes in his heart to open some juices by itself and Gary goes I put a tart and then agua de la stretch on occasion for sighs let's go physically she told is there put your hands on your hips for be kidding it starts hurting do you know I'm sorry about that good thing but put her over here my granddad taught me toughen up there plenty no those that hug yep just put your head straight like this kind of can you get better at it take time what the are yeah yeah I think it's hard to know what we haven't managed to completely explain why you have had this trouble we wouldn't claim at any way to have a complete cure or treatment for a public acidemia by night still haven't found a cure for it no because it's a disease that no way affects every cell in the body during my time making this film I've seen firsthand the benefits of cousin marriages but also its tragic consequences one medical study estimates of nearly 700 British Pakistani children are born with serious disabilities every year if this was any other health risk in the UK there'd be a huge national campaign to raise awareness until this happens many more innocent children will be born to lives of unimaginable and preventable suffering well gee mr. Louie - yeah I got like a good job and blap build some coma song get married ah ba ba bum knee on my own as well there's like give your money because India like always work hard because like if your mind so on they're like you clever disease because you don't you don't know what I would have couldn't Scott so is important safe there of kids yet you don't include alright that lies if that presents like heart disease from you know how that kid could be born some people can be born different colours so it's important that you think who you going to marry but Maryland families know always good idea [Music] [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 3,467,188

Rating: 4.6537876 out of 5

Keywords: cousin marriage pakistan, real stories when cousins marry, cousins marry full documentary, when cousins marry full documentary, when cousins marry documentary, cousin marriage documentary, cousin marriage, cousin marriage in islam, cousin marriage problem, arranged marriage documentary, Real Stories, forced marriage documentary, forced marriage, Ramadan, Tarawi, Taraweeh, Iftar, Mubarak, Kareem, Muslima, An-Nisa, Aisha, Talaq, Khadija, Abaya, Muhammad, Mohammed, Salah, Hajj, Umrah, Madrasa

Id: NkxuKe2wOMs

Length: 46min 52sec (2812 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 04 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/TimMcBern]

My sister is a medical student and works within a large community in which marriage within the family is quite common. As a GP, one of the first questions she must ask is: "Is your spouse related to you in any way other than marriage?" She has to ask it because it's not something people in that community feel needs to be mentioned. I'd say there is ignorance in the general public AND within those communities, too.

EDIT: Just to clarify, this is the question she asks the parents of the children she sees in thr paediatrics ward of the hospital.

[u/ReginaldJudicata]

A modern take on Les Cousins Dangereux?

[u/TrudieBeakman]

But it’s okay if it’s your first cousin right? You have your cousins, and then your first cousins and then your second cousins... wait, that’s not right, is it?

[u/doegred]

/r/crusaderkings approves. The only thing better than cousin marriage is cousin marriage where your 'cousin' is actually your oblivious bastard half sibling.

[u/Szczup]

it is a very sad situation as people defending the status quo will be claiming that this is their culture, faith etc.

[u/Pillarsofcreation99]

I have seen people do this like it is the most normal thing in the world and I am quite honestly shocked when they just outright dismiss possibilities of genetic defects sadly , it is common in some states in my country :(

[u/10inchezsoft]

What an ignorant drain on the health system. Imagine the magnitude of the situation in Pakistan.

[u/[deleted]]

I think people will explain stuff away, look to the families that have cousin marriage and children without issues. I know a family who the grandparents are cousins, had 5 like really smart physically healthy people with great careers, 2 got setup with cousins, had 3 kids each, again without issue all normal healthy smart kids. When things aren’t 100% of the time, they explain away. I’ve seen it with drinking during pregnancy - “I got drunk lots before I knew I was pregnant and he turned out super smart!”

[u/MustHugEveryCat]

For the first 5 minutes I felt disgust and then it just turned into sadness for the rest of the video. Poor kids.