The Culture of Having Children in Southern Border Provinces
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Abstract
The study aimed to investigate the culture of having children in southernmost border provinces. The investigation was conducted by organizing a seminar in which the subjects were divided into 4 groups of 9 people. Each group consisted of elderly men and women, and young men and women. All were Muslims who were living in the southern border provinces—Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Satun. Although the total fertility rate in Thailand has fallen below the replacement level, it turned out that Muslims’ fertility rate was slightly higher. This was because of the great influence of the Islamic principles on Muslims’ beliefs and attitudes towards their living including having children. The findings revealed that according to the principles of Islam, men and women were encouraged to marry and have children to carry on the family. This belief had a significant effort on people practicing Islam, however, there were more people delaying having kids or staying single for the rest of their lives. The attitude that they should start families later in life and the fact that they did not select the gender of the baby could result in the decline of fertility. Additionally, it was found out that Muslims wanted to have big families while they were concerned about the cost of raising their children to have better lives and wanted the children’s education expenses. As parents, they wanted their children to have better lives and wanted the children to take care of them in old age. The subjects were found to be flexible to use temporary birth control methods for the interval between pregnancies and the good health of mothers. Besides, although the gender of the baby was not the major concern in Islamic principles, Muslim people hoped to have daughters to be responsible for elderly parents’ care.
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