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  4. May 2018
  5. Cousin Marriage Is Not Choice: Muslim Marriage and Underdevelopment

Cousin Marriage Is Not Choice: Muslim Marriage and Underdevelopment

  • Lena Edlund
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 108, May 2018
(pp. 353-57)
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Abstract

According to classical Muslim marriage law, a woman needs her guardian's (viz. father's) consent to marry. However, the resulting marriage payment, the mahr, is hers. This split bill may lie behind the high rates of consanguineous marriage in the Muslim world, where country estimates range from 20 to 60 percent. Cousin marriage can stem from a form of barter in which fathers contribute daughters to an extended family bridal pool against sons' right to draw from the same pool. In the resulting system, women are robbed of their mahr and sons marry by guarding their sisters' "honor" heeding clan elders.

Citation

Edlund, Lena. 2018. "Cousin Marriage Is Not Choice: Muslim Marriage and Underdevelopment." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 108: 353-57. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20181084

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
  • O17 Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
  • Z12 Cultural Economics: Religion
  • Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification