Mouths and Rabbits

I remembered Afwah Wa Araneb (Mouths and Rabbits) movie performed by late well-know Egyptian actress Faten Hamama, while I was watching the inauguration of the new city of Mansoura and listening to the statements of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi about family planning, its importance, and the population increase, which devours all the gross domestic product.

In fact, there are many who believe that the issue of family planning has been resolved as we neither see propaganda, nor do we see advertisements as we used before.. There are many calls that family planning is forbidden, and birth control is forbidden, but the statements of Dr. Shawqi Allam, the Grand Mufti of the Republic, were great when he said that birth control does not contradict with the Sharia’s call for reproduction.

I think that raising awareness, the resumption of family planning campaigns, the correction of religious thought, and the correction of developmental thinking are very important.

I do not know where the family's campaigns that were spread in all media outlets for awareness and enlightenment in the eighties and nineties, such as the campaign of late actor Abdel Moneim Madbouly to urge the use of family planning methods, consult a doctor to determine the appropriate method, and give advice in case they forget to take the pills. In addition, actor Ahmed Maher’s campaign stressd the importance of the family planning as during this campaign he appeared as a man burdened with responsibilities because of the large number of children and even he forgpt the names of his children, and then he advised people of the necessity of birth control.

The famous song "Hassanin and Muhammadin" by Fatma Eid, to raise awareness of the dangers of frequent childbearing .. The Ministry of Health continued to launch advertising campaigns to raise awareness of citizens about the importance of family planning and birth control in the past years, and perhaps the most famous of them is the campaign "Ask and consult for sake of the health of the whole family", "Your right to choose and your responsibility to decide," "Not by the number of girls and boys, but by health and planning," and "frequent childbearing damages your health..and your husband goes to another one."

I hope that the media, intellectuals, and civil society organizations will pay attention to family planning and confront any other ideas, in order to protect Egypt and society.