From National Public Radio 

Khasrat and Qadar Gul struggle to reconcile their cleric's teachings against contraception and husband Qadar Gul's desire not to father more children. "We are poor and cannot afford a bigger family," Qadar Gul says.

Julie McCarthy/NPR/ Khasrat and Qadar Gul struggle to reconcile their cleric’s teachings against contraception and husband Qadar Gul’s desire not to father more children. “We are poor and cannot afford a bigger family,” Qadar Gul says.
By Julie McCarthy
August 10, 2011

In Pakistan, family planning is an uncomfortable topic fraught with religious overtones.

But in one of Asia’s fastest growing populations, a story of women giving birth challenges stereotypes, including what Islam has to say about women’s health and family planning.

According to a new government survey, Pakistan is producing nearly 4 million babies every year, and most are born into poverty. The World Bank says 60 percent of Pakistanis live on less than $2 a day.

Yet clerics in religiously conservative Pakistan tell the Muslim majority that the Quran instructs women to keep bearing as many babies as possible. The message from the mullahs is that contraception is generally Haram, or a sin.

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