Government policy and personal family planning approval in conflict settings: The case of the Muslim minority in the Southern Philippines

Summary

Certain minority groups in a number of culturally pluralistic societies have interpreted governmentally sponsored family planning programmes as vehicles for reducing one basis for potential political power, i.e. the minority group's share of the total population. This has especially been the case in societies with protracted inter-group conflict. Such a conflict situation is found in the Southern Philippines between indigenous Muslims and arriving Christian settlers. Contrasting Muslim women in predominantly Muslim and in pluralistic-Muslim minority settings into which there have been sizeable Christian incursions, we suggest that though cultural pluralism has facilitated the dissemination of the national government's position on family planning, the nature of culture contact, and inter-group conflict could have provoked personal opposition to family planning because of its links with the government.