AZE.US
A reported relative marriage in Azerbaijan has reignited debate over whether the country’s legal ban is being properly enforced in practice.
According to local reports, the children of two sisters – a male cousin and a female cousin – were married in the village of Avshar in the Aghjabadi district. The wedding was reportedly held on March 27.
The case has drawn attention because Azerbaijan already has legal restrictions on marriages between close biological relatives. Amendments adopted last year to the Family Code banned marriages between the children of siblings, as well as certain other close relatives. Those rules entered into force on July 1, 2025.
Officials say the legal mechanism is clear: registry offices do not accept formal applications for marriage registration from people who fall under the prohibited degree of kinship.
But the reported wedding has again exposed the gap between the law on paper and what can still happen in practice, especially in areas where traditional attitudes remain strong and family pressure often outweighs legal or social warnings.
Kamila Aliyeva, deputy head of the family affairs department at the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, said awareness work has been assigned to 14 state institutions and all local executive bodies. She said meetings are regularly held with teenagers, young people and parents to explain the negative consequences of early marriage and marriages between relatives, while educational materials are also being distributed.
Even so, officials and civic figures acknowledge that legal restrictions alone are not enough to eliminate the problem. In some families and communities, cousin marriages are still viewed through the lens of custom, social familiarity or family convenience rather than public health and long-term social risk.
That is where the main weakness of enforcement becomes visible. The state can refuse official registration, but it cannot automatically prevent a family from holding a wedding ceremony or treating such a union as socially valid at the local level.
Another issue is the lack of transparent data. The Justice Ministry reportedly does not keep separate statistics on how many related couples have attempted to file for marriage since the ban took effect. Without that data, it is difficult to measure how widespread the problem remains or which regions need the most direct intervention.
Public figures quoted in the discussion around the case say responsibility cannot rest only with the couple. Parents, relatives, neighbors, local communities and municipal structures all have a role in preventing such marriages from going forward.
There is also no separate criminal article in Azerbaijan specifically punishing marriage between relatives. The main legal restriction is that such a marriage cannot be officially registered.
That leaves Azerbaijan facing a broader challenge. The law has been adopted, but changing deeply rooted social behavior is proving slower. The latest reported case suggests that, for now, the ban has created a legal barrier, not a full social solution.