Egypt has doubled efforts towards creating awareness about the existence of birth control and family planning to rural dwellers in a bid to manage rapid population growth in the country as President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has stated that the high rate of population growth poses a threat to national development.
The country is currently the most populated country in the Arab world with 93 million citizens and is set to grow to 128 million by 2030 if fertility rates of 4.0 births per thousand women continue, according to government figures. The target of the awareness is the rural areas where they view large families as a source of economic strength and there is resistance to birth control because of a belief that it is unlawful under Islam to aim to conceive a specific number of children.