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Afghanistan: Population Boom
Threatens Stabilization Chances
Afghanistan’s rapidly growing population is starting to worry officials in
Kabul. The demographic issue has the potential to become a significant
source of instability in the coming decades.
Traditional respect for large families, especially sons, is deeply embedded
among Afghans. Urbanization has reduced somewhat the economic need
for large families, yet the practice remains widespread. At 6.6 children
being born on average to every Afghan woman, Afghanistan has the
highest fertility rate in Asia. Among many Muslim believers, having a large
number of children is even perceived as a religious duty.
“People feel the bigger the family, the more influential you are and the
greater the number of children to work and earn an income,” said Dr.
Nasrat Rasa, a reproductive health consultant with the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) in Kabul.
More than three decades of strife, starting with the decade-long Soviet
occupation in 1979, have helped encourage Afghans to have lots of
children. “People were scared their children would be killed in the conflict
and wanted to ensure some would survive,” Rasa explained.
The same goes with infant mortality. A high percentage of infants are
underweight because they and their mothers lack essential nutrients. That
fact, combined with inadequate access to healthcare, has produced a high
death rate among children. The country’s under-five mortality rate
decreased from 257 per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 161 per 1,000 in
2007-2008, but is still one of the highest in the world, according to UN
statistics.
“People had large families because they wanted to have insurance for the
future,” Deputy Health Minister Nadera Hayat Burhani, who heads the
ministry’s reproductive health program, told EurasiaNet.org. “Here, there is
no health insurance, no life insurance. Each family has lost one or more
person during the war and they wanted to ensure there would be someone
to look after the parents in their old age.”
If the current pace holds, the population – by most counts now around 30
million – is estimated to reach 47 million by 2025, and 76 million by 2050. At
that rate, there seems little chance that Afghanistan’s economic
stabilization efforts can keep pace with the expanding population.
With the Afghan government already struggling to provide for the existing
population, maintaining the population growth rate would be a “disaster,”
according to Burhani. “Given our low economic conditions, how could we
prepare for providing education, health, food and shelter?” the deputy
minister added.
Public health professionals and government policymakers are working to
change attitudes and introduce systematic family planning. To bolster their
efforts, officials are citing Islamic principles in making a case for smaller
families.
“People give religious reasons for wanting to have more children,” said the
UN’s Rasa, “even though the Koran has verses in support of birth spacing.”
For example, Afghan officials are encouraging an interpretation of the
Koran that enjoins mothers to breastfeed a child for two years. Becaus
breastfeeding acts as a natural contraceptive (women ovulate far less
during lactation), health officials hope that raising awareness about such
an interpretation could eventually lead to a drop in the birth rate.
“We are approaching this very carefully,” said Mohammad Younus Payab,
UNFPA’s deputy country director. “We are attaching the issue of birth
spacing to religious beliefs and the injunctions in the Koran. We don’t want
to create any backlash.”
Clerics and community leaders are part of the family-planning efforts. “We
are training maulvis [religious leaders] to spread the message through
Friday prayers in the mosques,” said Deputy Minister Burhani. To give the
efforts added muscle, her ministry has also translated and adapted a book
on Islam and family planning produced by Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, an
eminent center of Islamic learning.
Despite such efforts, officials and public health workers recognize it will
take time to bring about the desired change.
The experience of Nabila Ibrahimi, a community health worker for Care, an
international non-governmental organization, highlights the difficulties. In
the village of Fazel Beg on the outskirts of Kabul, Ibrahimi convinced
37-year-old Sadia to take birth-control pills after her 11th delivery left her
in poor health.
However, Sadia’s husband believed the pills were un-Islamic and threw
them out.
“Besides,” says Sadia, “though I have 10 [surviving children], seven of
them are girls. My husband wants more sons, so I am waiting to get
pregnant again.”
Afghanistan: Population Boom Threatens Stabilization Chances | EurasiaNet.org
Hmm....what do you think? Agree with this or not?
Threatens Stabilization Chances
Afghanistan’s rapidly growing population is starting to worry officials in
Kabul. The demographic issue has the potential to become a significant
source of instability in the coming decades.
Traditional respect for large families, especially sons, is deeply embedded
among Afghans. Urbanization has reduced somewhat the economic need
for large families, yet the practice remains widespread. At 6.6 children
being born on average to every Afghan woman, Afghanistan has the
highest fertility rate in Asia. Among many Muslim believers, having a large
number of children is even perceived as a religious duty.
“People feel the bigger the family, the more influential you are and the
greater the number of children to work and earn an income,” said Dr.
Nasrat Rasa, a reproductive health consultant with the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) in Kabul.
More than three decades of strife, starting with the decade-long Soviet
occupation in 1979, have helped encourage Afghans to have lots of
children. “People were scared their children would be killed in the conflict
and wanted to ensure some would survive,” Rasa explained.
The same goes with infant mortality. A high percentage of infants are
underweight because they and their mothers lack essential nutrients. That
fact, combined with inadequate access to healthcare, has produced a high
death rate among children. The country’s under-five mortality rate
decreased from 257 per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 161 per 1,000 in
2007-2008, but is still one of the highest in the world, according to UN
statistics.
“People had large families because they wanted to have insurance for the
future,” Deputy Health Minister Nadera Hayat Burhani, who heads the
ministry’s reproductive health program, told EurasiaNet.org. “Here, there is
no health insurance, no life insurance. Each family has lost one or more
person during the war and they wanted to ensure there would be someone
to look after the parents in their old age.”
If the current pace holds, the population – by most counts now around 30
million – is estimated to reach 47 million by 2025, and 76 million by 2050. At
that rate, there seems little chance that Afghanistan’s economic
stabilization efforts can keep pace with the expanding population.
With the Afghan government already struggling to provide for the existing
population, maintaining the population growth rate would be a “disaster,”
according to Burhani. “Given our low economic conditions, how could we
prepare for providing education, health, food and shelter?” the deputy
minister added.
Public health professionals and government policymakers are working to
change attitudes and introduce systematic family planning. To bolster their
efforts, officials are citing Islamic principles in making a case for smaller
families.
“People give religious reasons for wanting to have more children,” said the
UN’s Rasa, “even though the Koran has verses in support of birth spacing.”
For example, Afghan officials are encouraging an interpretation of the
Koran that enjoins mothers to breastfeed a child for two years. Becaus
breastfeeding acts as a natural contraceptive (women ovulate far less
during lactation), health officials hope that raising awareness about such
an interpretation could eventually lead to a drop in the birth rate.
“We are approaching this very carefully,” said Mohammad Younus Payab,
UNFPA’s deputy country director. “We are attaching the issue of birth
spacing to religious beliefs and the injunctions in the Koran. We don’t want
to create any backlash.”
Clerics and community leaders are part of the family-planning efforts. “We
are training maulvis [religious leaders] to spread the message through
Friday prayers in the mosques,” said Deputy Minister Burhani. To give the
efforts added muscle, her ministry has also translated and adapted a book
on Islam and family planning produced by Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, an
eminent center of Islamic learning.
Despite such efforts, officials and public health workers recognize it will
take time to bring about the desired change.
The experience of Nabila Ibrahimi, a community health worker for Care, an
international non-governmental organization, highlights the difficulties. In
the village of Fazel Beg on the outskirts of Kabul, Ibrahimi convinced
37-year-old Sadia to take birth-control pills after her 11th delivery left her
in poor health.
However, Sadia’s husband believed the pills were un-Islamic and threw
them out.
“Besides,” says Sadia, “though I have 10 [surviving children], seven of
them are girls. My husband wants more sons, so I am waiting to get
pregnant again.”
Afghanistan: Population Boom Threatens Stabilization Chances | EurasiaNet.org
Hmm....what do you think? Agree with this or not?
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