Publisher's Synopsis
In this collection of papers by authors from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, the diversity of population policies in countries from North Africa to Iran is considered in light of the international debates that surrounded the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. The papers assess the interplay of economic, political, cultural, and demographic forces that shape the context of population policy in the region. In the first section of the book, four papers analyze the political conditions under which population policies are formulated and implemented in the Middle East and in particular the legal, religious, and symbolic aspects of the relation between the state, the family, and the individual. A second section focuses on the cultural context in which existing population policies operate, specifically the ways in which resources and responsibilities are distributed within the family and the constraints that household/family structures represent for individual reproductive behavior. The third section of the book considers the extent to which health and family planning services are effective in improving the well-being of the populations they serve and at the same time are responsive to the needs of individual women.
