Contraception/Birth Control

[Chocolate and Honey]

I have been showing an awesome documentary by PBS called: World in the Balance in my classes this whole week.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/prod-pacheco.html

I'm having students write an essay about Earth&Overpopulation. If you watch the documentary, it raises a couple of points regarding child rearing practices.

(1) coorelation between education and childrearing: Higher Education and financial opportunities decrease the desire to have many children.

(2) Gender roles in each society. What is the status of women in that country?

For instance, in Japan the birth rate has decreased tremendously in the past decades as women are more educated and afforded more opporunities and now they're facing a huge problem with their aging population who wont have younger people who can support them in the golden years.

The opposite is found in Northern India, where little girls are burned alive for not bearing sons. And a woman is expected to bear as many children as she can, preferrably sons.

Which brings me to my point: the avarage African women has 8 children(Kenya and other AIDS infested countries being the exception because people in their 20 and 30 are dying of AIDS at an alarming rate) and this number not only puts strain on the financial stability of the family but of the country and the planet. And with contraception being as taboo as it was in the beggining of the last century, the number of children in Somalia is increasing too.

We all know families with no income to speak of who have 10 or more children back home. So at this point, is contraception permissible, desirable, enforcable? DISCUSS.

 

Please note that I'm not arguing for either and or. I'm merely opening this question for an honest discussion.

[Archdemos]

I think it should be permissible as the realities in the west dictate a different lifestyle.

 

What i mean is life is so much more expensive here that you cannot afford more than 3 children at best.

 

I plan to get married in the next year and half and intend to delay having children until i can afford to, it’s not ideal but the situation will force my hand. I have to be responsible for that child’s maintenance throughout its life into adulthood. There are just so many costs to factor in.

 

I don’t know what the Islamic stance is but I suspect it isn’t far off my thinking.

 

On a different note what level schooling do you teach C&H.

[Chocolate and Honey]

High School or Secondary as you English people call it.

What if it isnt permissible in Islam?

[Archdemos]

i think it is, i remember reading something in sahih bukhari about the practise of Azl, or coitus interruptus in latin. with her permission your allowed to just pull out, so in the modern context some contraceptives should be just fine.

[Geel_jire]

everything has extremes.

 

those that refuse to have children because they will get in the way of their lifestyl are extremelly selfish.

 

and having 30 kids just because you physically can is irresponisble.

 

you have to take into account gaalada have a different perspective since they are all ilmo-xaaraan/wicil they dont expect much from their own children i.e taking care of them in their old age, so it might appear to be a wasted investment on their part.

 

on a side note I would not want my kids to shown this documentary there is so much wrong with it I dont know where to begin.

[Dhubad.]

Horta if the Somali society are known to have a large number of children why the overall Somali population is too low ? Currently is estimated around 20 to 25 million. Does that mean the death rate is too high and hence it offsets the population growth?

[Allamagan]

^blame it on konfuria culture of kill more

[Chocolate and Honey]

Horta if the Somali society are known to have a large number of children why the overall Somali population is too low ? Currently is estimated around 20 to 25 million. Does that mean the death rate is too high and hence it offsets the population growth?

Must you ask? Yes, very much so. Everyday when you log on to this site, what does the headline say? How many people died that day?

[General Duke]

^^^Nonsense, the Somali population has increased a great deal over the past 50 years, including the last 20 years. The problem was in the past infant mortality, and the death rate of women in child birth was very high. Also we are a young race, by all accounts.

[Chocolate and Honey]

Ahemm...you flew by the topic at hand ya General.

[General Duke]

^^^Pardon me, I was responding to the question regarding, why our race was so small.

 

As for the topic, I agree on the most part with what brother Geel_jire, said. What’s your stance on the issue of family planning?

[Chocolate and Honey]

um.. Geeljire didnt really take a stand. I'm for family planning. Where do you stand and why?

[General Duke]

I am not sure about the whole family planning thing. How much can we mere mortals plan? On a personal note, I would like to have a nice size family, 22 children, preferably 18 boys, and four girls, so that in a hundreds years, there will be a large reer Duke, spread out between Burnsville and Beverly Hills.

[Haatu]

Lol at 22 kids. May Allah bless you with 22

 

As for the family planning, I believe people should be realistic. There's no point in having 10 kids if you can't feed yourself. So it really depends on how many you can handle.

[nuune]

Soomaalidii hore waxey isticmaali jireen bulunqo lagu darey xulbad to prevent pregnancy.