Modernization and family planning programs in Egypt

Middle East Report

Volumn , Issue 205, 1997, Pages 40-44

  Ali, Kamran Asdar ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEVELOPING COUNTRY; FAMILY PLANNING; FERTILITY BEHAVIOUR; MODERNISATION;

EGYPT;

EID: 0031433684     PISSN: 08992851     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3013096     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey (Cairo: National Population Council, 1992), p. xxiii.
2. See Lila Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985);, S. Altorki, Women in Saudi Arabia: Ideology and Behavior among the Elite (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986); and C. Nelson, "Public and Private: Women in the Middle Eastern World," American Ethnologist 1 (1974), pp. 551-63.
3. See Lila Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985);, S. Altorki, Women in Saudi Arabia: Ideology and Behavior among the Elite (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986); and C. Nelson, "Public and Private: Women in the Middle Eastern World," American Ethnologist 1 (1974), pp. 551-63.
4. See Lila Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985);, S. Altorki, Women in Saudi Arabia: Ideology and Behavior among the Elite (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986); and C. Nelson, "Public and Private: Women in the Middle Eastern World," American Ethnologist 1 (1974), pp. 551-63.
5. This emphasis on women echoed the larger trends in family planning policy elsewhere in the world; see Susan Cotts Watkins, "If All We Knew About Women Was What We Read in Demography, What Would We Know?" Demography 30/4 (1993), pp. 551-577.
6. See M. A. Mustafa, Male Attitudes Towards Family Planning in Sudan (Sudan Fertility Control Association, 1982); Michael T. Mbizvo and Donald J. Adamchak, "Family Planning Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of men in Zimbabwe," Studies in Family Planning 22/ 1 (1991), pp. 31-38; Shireen J. Jejeebhoy and Sumati Kulkarni, "Reproductive Motivation: A Comparison of Wives and Husbands in Maharashtra, India," Studies in Family Planning 20/5 (1989), pp. 274-90; Mona A. Khalifa, "Attitudes of Urban Sudanese Men Towards Family Planning," Studies in Family Planning 19/4 (1988), pp. 236-43; and Hussein Abdel-Aziz Sayed, Fatma Hasan El-Zanaty and Anne R. Cross, Egypt Male Survey 1991 (Cairo Demographic Center, 1992).
7. See M. A. Mustafa, Male Attitudes Towards Family Planning in Sudan (Sudan Fertility Control Association, 1982); Michael T. Mbizvo and Donald J. Adamchak, "Family Planning Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of men in Zimbabwe," Studies in Family Planning 22/ 1 (1991), pp. 31-38; Shireen J. Jejeebhoy and Sumati Kulkarni, "Reproductive Motivation: A Comparison of Wives and Husbands in Maharashtra, India," Studies in Family Planning 20/5 (1989), pp. 274-90; Mona A. Khalifa, "Attitudes of Urban Sudanese Men Towards Family Planning," Studies in Family Planning 19/4 (1988), pp. 236-43; and Hussein Abdel-Aziz Sayed, Fatma Hasan El-Zanaty and Anne R. Cross, Egypt Male Survey 1991 (Cairo Demographic Center, 1992).
8. See M. A. Mustafa, Male Attitudes Towards Family Planning in Sudan (Sudan Fertility Control Association, 1982); Michael T. Mbizvo and Donald J. Adamchak, "Family Planning Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of men in Zimbabwe," Studies in Family Planning 22/ 1 (1991), pp. 31-38; Shireen J. Jejeebhoy and Sumati Kulkarni, "Reproductive Motivation: A Comparison of Wives and Husbands in Maharashtra, India," Studies in Family Planning 20/5 (1989), pp. 274-90; Mona A. Khalifa, "Attitudes of Urban Sudanese Men Towards Family Planning," Studies in Family Planning 19/4 (1988), pp. 236-43; and Hussein Abdel-Aziz Sayed, Fatma Hasan El-Zanaty and Anne R. Cross, Egypt Male Survey 1991 (Cairo Demographic Center, 1992).
9. See M. A. Mustafa, Male Attitudes Towards Family Planning in Sudan (Sudan Fertility Control Association, 1982); Michael T. Mbizvo and Donald J. Adamchak, "Family Planning Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of men in Zimbabwe," Studies in Family Planning 22/ 1 (1991), pp. 31-38; Shireen J. Jejeebhoy and Sumati Kulkarni, "Reproductive Motivation: A Comparison of Wives and Husbands in Maharashtra, India," Studies in Family Planning 20/5 (1989), pp. 274-90; Mona A. Khalifa, "Attitudes of Urban Sudanese Men Towards Family Planning," Studies in Family Planning 19/4 (1988), pp. 236-43; and Hussein Abdel-Aziz Sayed, Fatma Hasan El-Zanaty and Anne R. Cross, Egypt Male Survey 1991 (Cairo Demographic Center, 1992).
10. See M. A. Mustafa, Male Attitudes Towards Family Planning in Sudan (Sudan Fertility Control Association, 1982); Michael T. Mbizvo and Donald J. Adamchak, "Family Planning Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of men in Zimbabwe," Studies in Family Planning 22/ 1 (1991), pp. 31-38; Shireen J. Jejeebhoy and Sumati Kulkarni, "Reproductive Motivation: A Comparison of Wives and Husbands in Maharashtra, India," Studies in Family Planning 20/5 (1989), pp. 274-90; Mona A. Khalifa, "Attitudes of Urban Sudanese Men Towards Family Planning," Studies in Family Planning 19/4 (1988), pp. 236-43; and Hussein Abdel-Aziz Sayed, Fatma Hasan El-Zanaty and Anne R. Cross, Egypt Male Survey 1991 (Cairo Demographic Center, 1992).
11. The preceding analysis is based on interviews with family planning officials in the government, international donor agencies, nongovernmental organizations and family planning reports and surveys.
12. See Hussein Abdel-Aziz Sayed, et al., Egypt Male Survey 1991, op. cit.
13. Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey, op. cit.
14. See Hussein Abdel-Aziz Sayed, et al., Egypt Male Survey 1991, op. cit., p. 2.
15. Ibid., p. 22.
16. Ibid., p. 32.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., p. 45.
19. Ibid., p. 32.
20. Ibid., p. 63.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid., p. 70.
24. Susan Greenhalgh, "Anthropology Theorizes Reproduction: Integrating Practice, Political Economic and Feminist Perspectives," in Susan Greenhalgh, ed., Situating Fertility (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 3-28; Susan Greenhalgh, "The Social Construction of Population Science: An Intellectual, Institutional and Political History of 20th Century Demography," in Comparative Studies in Society and History (forthcoming).
25. Susan Greenhalgh, "Anthropology Theorizes Reproduction: Integrating Practice, Political Economic and Feminist Perspectives," in Susan Greenhalgh, ed., Situating Fertility (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 3-28; Susan Greenhalgh, "The Social Construction of Population Science: An Intellectual, Institutional and Political History of 20th Century Demography," in Comparative Studies in Society and History (forthcoming).
26. See Talal Asad, "Conscripts of Western Civilization," in Christine Ward Gailey, ed., Civilization in Crisis (Gainsville: University Press of Florida, 1992), pp. 333-352.
27. See Greenhalgh, Situating Fertility, op. cit., p. 7.
28. See Jane Schneider and Peter Schneider, "Sex and Respectability in an Age of Fertility Decline: A Sicilian Case Study," Social Science and Medicine 33/8 (1991), pp. 885-95.
29. By the early 20th century, reflecting changing social and economic structures, marriage patterns by choice and "love," were becoming common among the elite of Egypt. See Beth Baron, "The Making and Breaking of Marital Bonds in Modern Egypt," in Nikki Keddie and Beth Baron, eds., Women in Middle Eastern History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), pp. 275-91.
30. See H. Sayed as quoted in Nora Guhl Naguib and Cynthia Llyod, "Gender Inequalities and Demographic Behavior: The Case of Egypt," Occasional Paper Series (New York: The Population Council, 1994) and H. Sayed, "Population Policy in Egypt," in Population Policies in the Third World: Issues and Practice (Cairo: Cairo Demographic Center, 1988).
31. See H. Sayed as quoted in Nora Guhl Naguib and Cynthia Llyod, "Gender Inequalities and Demographic Behavior: The Case of Egypt," Occasional Paper Series (New York: The Population Council, 1994) and H. Sayed, "Population Policy in Egypt," in Population Policies in the Third World: Issues and Practice (Cairo: Cairo Demographic Center, 1988).
32. See Nora Guhl Naguib and Cynthia Llyod, "Gender Inequalities and Demographic Behavior: The Case of Egypt," op. cit.
33. International donors view the policy emphasis on the rights of couples as a direct infringement of the individual rights of women to decide in reproductive matters.
34. Using the rhetoric of overpopulation, Egyptian state and media proclamations continuously hold the people responsible for their own economic misery. The family planning program also allows the state to enter the domestic space of the Egyptian household. On the one hand it poses as the defender of women's rights. On the other, it undermines the authority of the patriarch by deeming him irresponsible. Thus the state carves out the authoritative voice in relation to fertility decisions.
35. See Talal Asad, op. cit.
36. Deniz Kandiyoti, "Bargaining with Patriarchy," Gender and Society 2/3 (1988), pp. 264-72. Kandiyoti argues that by letting men enjoy some privileges women traditionally guaranteed for themselves a secure social and economic environment.
37. Heba Nasser, "The Impact of Adjustment Policies on Nutrition in Egypt," unpublished paper prepared for the 29th European Association of Agricultural Economists Seminar on Food and Agricultural Policies under Structural Adjustment (Stuttgart, 1990).