That being said, I am very happy to see you note the point by Bittles about marriage in the clan as well as cousin marriage — or about population subdivision. Many of those in Pakistani biradari are actually not known to be have any degree of cousinship, although it is presumed that they are somehow related. The genetic variation in these groups gets reduced due to not marrying out for long periods of time, so even if you ban first-cousin or even any known cousin marriage there will still be increased frequency of ailments. For their part, the Amish ban anything closer than second-cousin marriage and continue to have problems.

I’m very skeptical of any kind of long-term prediction that cousin marriage will lead to inbreeding depression in Arab societies. Why? Well…it hasn’t. We’ve had quite a long time to test the hypothesis! Historically cousin marriage has only been one of many options. I don’t see screening changing this, because I don’t really see cousin marriage being that much more frequent as a result. People are already not taking into account the genetic aspect. I agree with Steve Pinker that its long-term biological disadvantages have basically been “small.” (And looking that long term, I’d be much more concerned anyway about the effects of more direct transhumanist meddling.)

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/society/rise-in-number-of-spinsters-as-emiratis-marry-foreigners-1.672200

Not directly related to your post but here are the new restrictions:

A proposal in regard to the laws that regulate the marriage of Emirati men to foreign women has been prepared, although it has not yet been approved. The law will include obtaining a special permission to marry from the Ministry of Interiors. Permission will only be granted if the marriage meets criteria such as:
1. The wife must be Arab and Muslim.
2. The husband must not be married to any other woman at the time.
3. The age difference should not exceed 25 years.
4. The husband must be financially capable of supporting the woman.
5. The couple must be free of any hereditary or sexually transmitted diseases.
6. The wife must not be banned from entering the country for any reason.

Just thinking about the psychology of it, and not quite sure what to make of it (yet). I’m sure culture changes (as the incentives changes), but that is a separate questions. Why would people even suggest such a thing, rather than the other.

(Made me also think about the japanese and their robot thing, and a girl who wrote in to an advise columnist and asked how she would go about getting a hysterectomy, because she resented having to pay for tampons every month – yes that was in sweden).

…