Advances in Anthropology, 2022, 12, 137-148 https://www.scirp.org/journal/aa ISSN Online: 2163-9361 ISSN Print: 2163-9353 DOI: 10.4236/aa.2022.123011 Aug. 26, 2022 137 Advances in Anthropology Effect of Women’s Status on Consanguinity in the Arab Society of Israel Abdelnaser Zalan 1* , Mohammad Khatib 2 , Ahmad Sheikh Muhammad 2 , Muhammad Mahajnah 3,4 , Esmael Atamany 1 , Rajech Sharkia 1,5* 1 Human Biology Unit, The Triangle Regional Research and Development Center, Kfar Qari, Israel 2 The Galilee Society, The Arabs National Society for Research and Health Services, Shefa-Amr, Israel 3 Child Neurology and Development Centre, Hillel-Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera, Israel 4 Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Haifa, Israel 5 Beit-Berl Academic College, Beit-Berl, Israel Abstract Background: Consanguinity is a traditional phenomenon that is common in many communities worldwide. In Arab countries, its prevalence is considered to be high, despite its decrease in some Arab societies. According to the Arab society in Israel, the rates of consanguineous marriages (CMs) recently were found to be increasing in the last decade. Generally, various socio-demographic factors play an important role in determining the prevalence rates of consan- guineous marriages. Objective: The purpose of the current study is to deter- mine the prevalence rates of consanguineous marriages among the Arab so- ciety in Israel, relating to various women’s socio-demographic factors. The study explored the effect of wives’ age at marriage, their educational attain- ment, their employment, and their income level on consanguinity in this community. Method: The data were obtained from a health national survey that was carried out during the year 2017, among the Arab society in Israel. The subjects supplied the required information about themselves through personal face-to-face interviews using a survey questionnaire prepared spe- cifically for this purpose. A detailed analysis was conducted to determine sta- tistical significance. Result: It was observed that the prevalence rate of con- sanguineous marriages among the women from the Arab society in Israel seems to be high (~42%). Furthermore, the prevalence rates of CMs were found to be inversely proportional to the wife’s age at marriage and their educational attainment. A significant difference could be detected between the rates of CMs and non-CMs in relation to wife’s employment factor and wife’s income level (i.e., 70% of the employed women had non-CMs and 65% of the high wife’s income level had non-CMs). Conclusion: Our findings How to cite this paper: Zalan, A., Khatib, M., Muhammad, A. S., Mahajnah, M., Ata- many, E., & Sharkia, R. (2022). Effect of Women’s Status on Consanguinity in the Arab Society of Israel. Advances in Anth- ropology, 12, 137-148. https://doi.org/10.4236/aa.2022.123011 Received: July 7, 2022 Accepted: August 23, 2022 Published: August 26, 2022 Copyright © 2022 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access