GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — While Islam calls for believers to bear many children and prohibits the use of birth control, new Palestinian generations are defying tradition and leaning toward limiting the number of children they have.
As Arabs, Palestinians are among the keenest on maintaining their mores and traditions as well as the most committed to the teachings of Islam. Religious scholars historically called on people to procreate with abandon, and their calls were widely endorsed by men and women alike, in their quest to gain — in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict — a demographic advantage in the Palestinian territories.
The newer generations, however, which have had to contend with successive economic and political crises, decided to forego this call to procreate. Reasons for this, according to sociologist Assaad Kuhail, include increased awareness and their slim chances of finding job security as well as the difficulties they have faced in trying to live a dignified and prosperous life.
“Life is completely different from the one lived by our fathers and grandfathers. We have lost the motivation to have many children. On the contrary, the new generation now prefers to limit the number of children they have, as life has become more difficult and is only getting harder with time,” Kuhail said in an interview with Al-Monitor.
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