{"id":76217,"date":"2026-02-04T14:00:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2026\/feb\/04\/married-pakistani-children-women-motherhood"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:00:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:00:34","slug":"im-married-pakistani-and-i-dont-want-children-that-doesnt-make-me-broken-fizza-abbas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=76217","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m married, Pakistani \u2013 and I don\u2019t want children. That doesn\u2019t make me broken | Fizza Abbas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I live in a country where a woman\u2019s value is often measured by motherhood, but for me and many others fulfilment simply looks different<\/p>\n<p>I booked an online appointment with a gynaecologist in Karachi during the pandemic. I had a severe urinary tract infection and needed immediate relief. Everything felt routine at first: the doctor joined the video call late, held her phone awkwardly and asked about my symptoms. I explained, she prescribed medication, and then came the expected questions: Was I married? For how long? Any children? When I said \u201cno,\u201d her tone shifted as she asked, \u201c<em>Bachay tou chaihiye na aap ko?<\/em>\u201d (You do want children, right?). It felt subtly menacing \u2013 the assumption was clear: not wanting kids meant something was wrong.<\/p>\n<p>What shocked me more was my own response. \u201c<em>Ji, ji, bilkul,<\/em>\u201d (Yes, yes, of course) I mumbled. Later, I was furious with myself for crumbling under pressure \u2013 for not being honest.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2026\/feb\/04\/married-pakistani-children-women-motherhood\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I live in a country where a woman\u2019s value is often measured by motherhood, but for me and many others fulfilment simply looks differentI booked an online appointment with a gynaecologist in Karachi during the pandemic. I had a severe urinary tract infe&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5159,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59,60,1539,79,61,281,617,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-development","category-pakistan","category-reproductive-rights","category-society","category-south-and-central-asia","category-women","category-womens-rights-and-gender-equality","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76218,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76217\/revisions\/76218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}