Birth control permissible in Islam: Egypt’s Mufti

CAIRO – 29 August 2020: Egypt’s Grand Mufti, who is responsible for issuing the Islamic decisions, announced that birth control is permissible in Islam.

 

 

“Birth control is a legitimate matter in Islam. It is necessary nowadays. Birth control became the main solution to the problem of overpopulation, which is considered an issue of national security” he said in Nazrah talk show on Sada El-Balad T.V. on Friday.

 

 

However, if the woman got pregnant during the birth control period, she is forbidden to abort her baby as Islam is abortion unless necessary for health reasons.

 

 

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has said population growth is “a challenge as critical as that of terrorism.” 

 

 

In May 2018, the Ministry of Social Solidarity launched a family planning campaign with the slogan “Two are enough”, aiming to contain the increasing population after the population reached 96.3 million early 2018. The campaign aimed to reduce the birth rate to 2.4, targeting rural areas where many view large families as a source of economic strength and resist birth control, believing that it is un-Islamic. 

 

 

However, it was difficult to achieve its objectives; the state’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced in July 2020 that it is expected that the population to reach 101 million people in October.