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PREVALENCE OF CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES IN WEST AND SOUTH OF AFGHANISTAN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2012

MOSTAFA SAADAT  and
KHADIJEH TAJBAKHSH
MOSTAFA SAADAT
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, College of Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
KHADIJEH TAJBAKHSH
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, College of Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
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Summary

The prevalence of consanguinity in eight provinces of Afghanistan has recently been reported by Saify & Saadat (2012). The present cross-sectional study was done in order to illustrate the prevalence and types of consanguineous marriages among other populations of Afghanistan. Data on types of marriages were collected using a simple questionnaire. The total number of couples in this study was 5200 from the following provinces: Farah, Ghazni, Herat, Hilmand, Kabul, Kandahar, Logar, Parwan and Wardak. Consanguineous marriages were classified by the degree of relationship between couples: double first cousins, first cousins, first cousins once removed, second cousins and beyond second cousins. The coefficient of inbreeding (F) was calculated for each couple and the mean coefficient of inbreeding (α) estimated for each population. The α in the country was 0.0226, ranging from 0.0203 in Farah province to 0.0246 in Herat province. There were significant differences between provinces for frequencies of different types of marriages (p<0.001). First cousin marriages (21.7%) were the most common type of consanguineous marriages, followed by second cousins (16.0%), first cousins once removed (14.0%), beyond second cousins (6.9%) and double first cousins (1.6%). There was significant difference between ethnic groups for the types of marriages (p<0.001). Tajiks (Soni) and Sadats showed the lowest (α=0.0215) and highest (α=0.0242) levels of consanguinity among ethnic groups in Afghanistan, respectively. The present study shows that the Afghani populations, the same as other Islamic populations, have high levels of consanguinity.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 45 , Issue 6 , November 2013 , pp. 799 - 805
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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