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of this approach, several developing countries have modified or extended their population control efforts from family planning policies and programs to reflect the nuances of this new approach. As a consequence, several articles, reports, and books on reproductive health have been published in the last decade.
Although we have learned a lot concerning reproductive health in developing countries in the last decade or so through these publications, they are limited in scope and are often focused on a few countries. In addition, the measurement of the term reproductive health is seldom comparable in these publications; that is, researchers have used different measures to describe reproductive health that often vary from each other. The lack of a standard measurement is problematic for several reasons. First, in the absence of valid measures of reproductive health, existing empirical findings cannot be generalized across populations. Development of valid measures paves the way for future theory construction. Second, the absence of reproductive health indicators may lead researchers and policymakers to ignore the problems that need attention and social action. One reason for the inadequate attention paid to reproductive health stems from a lack of a theoretical approach to selecting indicators of reproductive health.
The role of religion is crucial in understanding the value basis of reproductive health. Islamic societies provide a rich research site to understand the role of social institutions on reproductive health. This is because it is well known that Islam has well-defined directives on various aspects of fertility and reproductive health. The People's Republic of Yemen is an example of an Islamic country that has not been featured widely in the demographic or reproductive health literature.
The purpose of this book is to address some of the limitations just addressed. First, we developed a theoretical perspective to