Georgia Straight: Stephen Harper’s religion clouds aid in Afghanistan

[tuvor]

The former head of Canada’s aid program in Afghanistan has expressed concern that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s religious beliefs are hampering humanitarian efforts.

Speaking to the Straight from Kabul, Nipa Banerjee noted that Harper is a born-again Christian, and she argued that his religious beliefs could be adversely affecting the Canadian International Development Agency’s efforts to help Afghan women.

“It has been said that reproductive health would not be a part of the government and CIDA’s aid programs,” said Banerjee, who led CIDA’s mission in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2006. “And the reproductive-health issue is a major problem in the context of Afghanistan because the maternal mortality rate is very high.”

A 2009 United Nations release stated that if you were a woman giving birth in Afghanistan that year, you had a one in eight chance of dying. The following year, a Lancet report on maternal health found that a primary factor in the global decline in maternal deaths in recent decades is decreasing fertility rates.

“It is important to make contraception available, whereas our government’s policy is not to include reproductive health in any kind of maternal-health program,” Banerjee said. “That I consider to be a major drawback.”

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http://www.straight.com/article-364813/vancouver/stephen-harpers-religion-clouds-aid-afghanistan

[rationalcalgarian]

1. Unfit to hold office

Any politician professing a devout faith should not be considered for public office. You never know where such a person's loyalties lie.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[glinda]

3. He is in bed with the extreme Right Wing in America. He must go. You must find a way.