FEMALE FOETICIDE – AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE
By Absar Aftab Absar
Female Foeticide is a crime of 20th Century when advancements in medical technology in the field of sonography were vehemently misused for determining the sex of the unborn child and female foetuses were invariably discarded. In India, the trend of female foeticide picked up, in particular, from 1970s as a part of the Family Planning Campaign and then attained alarming levels with the advancements in technology and ever-growing need of aborting female foetuses. Muslim countries represent a paradoxical situation. On the one hand, Islam considers female foeticide as a heinous crime and recommends severe punishments for this but on the other hand, higher incidences of this practice are reported from countries with predominantly Muslim population. A simple analysis of the issue reveals that it is primarily the social, cultural and economic factors rather than the religious ones, which are responsible for the continuation of this practice, particularly, in the developing and poor countries.
Keywords: Female Foeticide, Islam, Family planning
©2020- Lex Humanitariae: Journal for a Change
