Dhaka: 500 orphaned and malnourished babies in Bangladesh will be denied the source of their nourishment after fundamental Islamic critics said that giving milk from breast milk bank as un-Islamic.
A hospital in Bangladesh was planning to give donated breast milk to malnourished babies. The programme would have fed 500 orphans and infants of working mothers. The Islamists protests against the breast milk bank comes when the country is dealing with high rates of malnutrition and stunted growth.
The critics of the bank said that it would be against Sharia Law to let two babies drank milk from the same mother and later married. A leader of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh political party said that if that happens their marriage would get void and their lineage would be illegal.
An Islamic cleric Fariduddin Masoud said that authorities should find how Muslim majority countries like Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Malaysia have set up human milk banks.
The milk bank in Dhaka was supposed to open this month but is now delayed it because of widespread attack from extremist Islamic organizations.
A child specialist Mahbubul Haque described how important breast milk was for babies critically ill and for orphans.
The doctor said, “Human milk banks are essential for orphans and critically ill children, especially to save the lives of the babies who are being treated at the hospital’s intensive care unit and whose mothers are not available.”
He added, “Milk banks are established in major hospitals in the West. We should set up more such banks in all our top hospitals for children.”
