Marriages are generally strong in Egypt; reflecting the value
placed on family life. Divorce rates are very low relative to those
in the United States. Gender roles are what Americans would
call traditional. The man is expected to have the job, and the
woman is expected to be the caretaker of the home and chil-
dren. A lot of Egyptian women do work, particularly in the
cities, but for many, the job ends with marriage.
Finding a spouse in Egypt is a different process than it is
in the United States. Parents have much say in what partner
a son or daughter should have. Sometimes they negotiate an
arranged marriage, finding a suitable bride or groom based on
kinship. Traditionally, the ideal marriage has been between first
cousins: A man should marry his father’s brother’s daughter, or
his mother’s brother’s daughter. These unions are infrequent
enough that genetic consequences are limited. The closeness
of this ideal arrangement is, however, a good indicator of how
close kinship bonds are in Egypt.