Rafia is an international PhD scholar funded by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. She is currently pursuing her doctoral studies with a research focus on the Pakistani diaspora in the United Kingdom. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of migration studies, cultural integration, and transnational identities.
As an HEC-funded scholar, she brings a global perspective to the study of migration and identity, bridging academic communities in Pakistan and the U.K. Her work holds relevance for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners interested in diaspora engagement, multiculturalism, and social cohesion.
Transnational Cousin Marriages Among Pakistani Diasporas in the U.K.
Supervisors: Dr Laura Valadez-Martinez and Dr Fran Azpitarte
Rafia's PhD project is about transnational cousin marriages within the Pakistani diaspora in the United Kingdom. It explores how these marriages remain culturally significant while also facing increasing social, legal, and generational challenges in the host country.
Her research investigates both the continued importance of cousin marriages as a means of preserving kinship ties, cultural identity, and facilitating transnational mobility, and the ways in which they are being questioned or reinterpreted by younger generations growing up in the U.K. At the same time, she engages with critical perspectives that frame cousin marriages as a public health concern, particularly in relation to the risk of genetic disorders in offspring. By looking at both cultural and biomedical narratives, her work aims to provide a balanced understanding of the complexities surrounding cousin marriage practices in a transnational context.