BURKINA FASO: Muslim leaders agree to promote family planning

OUAGADOUGOU, 11 July 2008 (IRIN) - “The debates were fruitful. We explained to everybody that Islam was not against family planning and even recommended it”, Maiga Aboubakary, secretary-general of the Burkina Faso Islamic Organisation in Population and Development (RBOIPD), told IRIN.

The leaders have agreed to tour Burkina Faso's 45 provinces and 13 regions in a “vast awareness-raising campaign” for family planning.

“Religious leaders must sensitise their community in mosques, during religious celebrations, weddings, and funerals on why family planning is so important,” Aboubakary told IRIN.

Siaka Traoré, advocacy and communication officer at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Burkina Faso, said the meeting was a landmark. “We think that Islam has a sensitisation and education role; in that sense the choice of the venue for the meeting is very symbolic.”

According to the last census (2006) Muslims represent just over half of the country's 14 million people.

According to UNFPA's Traoré, religious leaders are an important target for family planning advocates because of the privileged role they play in the community. “Muslim leaders, being an instrumental part of the community, have an important role to play in family planning, and that is why we support this meeting between them,” Traoré said.

According to Aboubakary, many people think Islam's principles stand against family planning, when in fact many of its precepts promote it.

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