Bamako, 23rd December 2011: Our programme in Mali recently held workshops on the relationship between Islam and family planning. The sessions were led by members of RIPODE (Islam, Population and Development Network), an organisation which seeks to demonstrate the link between Islam and the challenges of population and development.
The RIPODE team, led by its president, Ed Hadj Zeidy Drame (also vice president of Haut Conseil Islamique, one of the most important Islamic groups in Mali) outlined a model which highlights the benefits of family planning from an Islamic perspective.
Using verses from the Qur’an and the Hadiths, the model highlights the demand by Islam for birth spacing and thus endorses the use of contraception.
For example, in chapter two, verse 233 of the Qur’an, it says “women giving birth should breast feed for two years”, and therefore must space at least two years between her births.
The model will be used by the team in Mali to help dispel the notion that family planning and Islam are incompatible.
MSI Mali would like to thank RIPODE for their invaluable contribution to the workshops, as well as the Malian Ministry of Health for their supervision and USAID for their financial support of this model.
99% of our health impact is in developing countries like Mali where in 2010 there were 15,728 women using modern contraception provided by us.
Find out more about our work in Mali
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