As one elderly father explained, marriage discussions can involve intense investigations to ensure that a son or daughter is not taking a step down the social ladder, or compromising the family's interests. In that environment, marrying relatives is always a safe bet. Most of the offspring of such unions are healthy, to an extent that even health officials studying the issue say they would hesitate to disrupt a family or community's most intimate plans with what is only an assessment of risks. Even cousins who are carriers of a particular blood disorder, for example, could produce a family with no evidence of the disease. However, rising concern over the risks poses a particularly complex set of problems in the Gulf region, where, because of the large numbers of foreign workers, marriage to one's own kind is seen as an issue of national survival.
Saudi law makes marriages with foreigners difficult, although less so for men than women.
The cultural pressure for Saudis to marry Saudis is intense, and the bureaucratic barriers to doing otherwise enormous. But neither does it prohibit unions as close as that of first cousin. Arguments, however, are made from both sides. Some recall that the prophet Muhammad's daughter married her cousin, while others point to the words of later caliphs encouraging the people of Islam to intermarry freely. Beyond any religious interpretation, Saudi Arabia remains a place of intensely tribal and generally restrictive social affiliations, where claims of the extended family and tribe still take precedence over any broader sense of nationality.