By AISHA ALI-KHAN PUBLISHED: 01:29, 30 September 2025 | UPDATED: 01:29, 30 September 2025 When I was still a teenager, growing up near Bradford in the 1990s, I defied my family by refusing an arranged marriage – to my own cousin. The prospect terrified me. When close blood relations have children together, the risks of serious birth defects and […]| WOMEN UNITED BLOG
A Conservative MP has called for a ban on cousin marriages. His proposed bill is unlikely to proceed further without government backing. His main argument is that the risk of birth defects doubles among marriages to first cousins. He also argues that cousin marriages ‘reinforce negative structures and control women’. Although this is not my […]| Marriage Foundation