Pakistan woman stoned to death by family for marrying man she loved

[happyslug]

86. This has NOTHING to do with Religion, Islam condemns such acts.

The problem is, in most of the world outside of the West (including Russia, Australia, New Zealand, North and South America), Japan and China (and concentrated in the Middle East, from Pakistan to North Africa) people tend to marry their cousin. It is presently illegal in China, but is believe to still be a common practice in China. Marrying Cousins is legal in most of the West, but do to culture it is rarely done (you do not keep something illegal if it is so rare that most people do not know it is illegal).

Given the above, Pakistan in one of those areas where marrying cousins is almost mandatory. Thus this woman's decision to marry someone else put her outside her cultural norms. Islam has had little affect on that norm. Pakistan has one of the highest rate of marring cousins in the world, over 70% admitted to such marriages:

http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Cousin_Marriage_in_Islam




Now, Islam does not encourage marrying one;s cousin, nor does it discourage it. On the other hand it was the norm among Arabs at the time of Mohammad and seems to have spread with Islam, but independent of Islam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage_in_the_Middle_East

The high rate of Cousin marriages in Pakistan is opposite the low rate of such marriages among Hindus in Northern and Western India (but Southern India has a high rate of Cousin marriages, but no where near the rate in Pakistan).

The Pakistan rate of cousin marriages is the highest in the world, exceeding by far the rate in the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia.

Just a comment, that this stoning appears to have little to do with Religion, but with what the family cultural norms are in Pakistan.

Please note, where Marrying one's cousin was illegal (such as in the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union) the rate of such marriages dropped like a rock. When such marriages were made legal (Late Soviet Union for example) such marriages remain rare (see the Former Soviet Central Asiatic States, whose rates of such marriages is the same as Russia and most of the rest of the world).