Family planning, Islam and sin: Understandings of moral actions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Anushka Ataullahjan, Zubia Mumtaz and Helen Vallianatos

Social Science & Medicine, 2019, vol. 230, issue C, 49-56

Abstract: Pakistan, with a population of over 207 million, is the sixth most populous country in the world. Yet, only 25% of eligible couples' report using a modern contraceptive method. A large body of literature indicates the existence of a widely-held perception among Pakistanis that family planning use is a sin, which is then often cited as evidence that Islamic beliefs impede contraceptive use (see Agha, 2010; Ali and Ushijima, 2005; Azmat, 2011; Zafar et al., 2003). We argue that this body of literature, which has relied primarily on quantitative measures and survey methodology, is highly reductive. Missing from this discourse is a nuanced analysis of how individuals engage with their Islamic beliefs to make fertility decisions. Drawing on 13 months of ethnographic data, our findings demonstrate that despite most of our respondents overwhelmingly believing that family planning use was a sin, many had, at some stage, tried to control their fertility. Our findings evidenced that respondents’ beliefs surrounding the morality of fertility control was informed by multiple moral registers beyond Islam. For our respondents, moral action was informed by interpretations of Islamic teachings, economic insecurity, socioeconomic inequities, community/public discourse, and geopolitics. We argue there is a need to complicate our understanding of how Islam shapes reproductive strategies in Pakistan, and its relative importance in contraceptive decisions.

Keywords: Family planning; Islam and sin: understandings of moral actions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619301534
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:230:y:2019:i:c:p:49-56

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.03.011

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().