Marriage in the Islamic World

Over at NRO, Kurtz has an important series on marriage in the Islamic world and the role of marriage in prevent cultural and religious changes. Kurtz’s first article is a fairly technical background examining endogamy, exogamy and cousin marriage. In the second article, Kurtz argues that patrilineal, parallel cousin marriage (the tradition of men marrying their father’s brother daughter) dominates Islamic marriage. The marriage reinforces Islamic culture and prevents assimilation into the West. Kurtz states that cousin marriage is supported by “full-body veiling, the seclusion of women, forced marriage, honor killing.” ‘The loyalties of women who marry within their own family lines remain undivided.”

Cousin marriage isn’t mandatory or prescribed by the Koran. However, cousin marriage is a long and powerful tradition possibly extending even before the caliphate. Kurtz suggest that because of the patrilineal, parallel cousin marriage, Islamic culture has a self sealing character that won’t be change by the usual bromides of economics, politics or exposure to the West. He concludes:

If we want to change any of this, it will be impossible to restrict ourselves to the study of religious Islam. The “self-sealing” character of Islam is part and parcel of a broader and more deeply rooted social pattern. And parallel-cousin marriage is more than just an interesting but minor illustration of that broader theme. If there’s a “self-sealing” tendency in Muslim social life, cousin marriage is the velcro. In contemporary Europe, perhaps even more than in the Middle East, cousin marriage is at the core of a complex of factors blocking assimilation and driving the war on terror.