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  • Title: Purdah and overpopulation in the Middle East.
    Author: Misch A.
    Journal: World Watch; 1990; 3(6):10-1, 34. PubMed ID: 12283423.
    Abstract:
    The Middle East and North Africa constitute the Islamic world. From Morocco to Afghanistan the population is 340 million and growing at a rate of 3% annually and will double in 23 years. Currently food, water, and land resources are being taxed to their limit and continued growth will only cause larger scale problems for the region. To complicate the issue public policies and private practices and attitudes are leading to continued population growth. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism does not recognize the problem of over population. In fact the revision of family law by fundamentalist politicians has done a great deal of damage to the improvements in the status of women throughout the region. The revival of Purdah, the practice of keeping women out of the public eye and confined to home, is just one example or how the rise of Islamic fundamentalism is turning back the clock in terms of women's rights. The primary disadvantage is that since women are being returned to the home, their only source of values is as child bearers. Women cloistered at home are expected to be prolific child bearers, in fact their value as human beings is judged primarily on this basis. It is their ability to bear sons that is coveted. This of course will only compound the population problems being experienced in the region. Few countries have tried to institute state wide family planning programs, namely: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen, but none of these programs has been very successful. In Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia, population growth is viewed as a positive event because it will help eliminate the need for foreign workers. Even in this region, educated people have a lower fertility rate. For example in Jordan 60% of illiterate males "did not believe in" contraception while only 15% of men educated past the secondary level felt the same way. If women are forced out of the labor force and into the home to have children, the population problem will only grow.
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