Sex, Reproduction, and Coptic Monasticism in Republican Egypt, 1952–68

In 1968, Matta El Meskeen, a Coptic Orthodox monk, published a surprising opinion in an editorial entitled Raʾy fī Taḥdīd al-Nasl (A Viewpoint on Birth Control). It was no coincidence that in the same week Pope Paul VI issued the Humanae vitae to confirm the stance of the Catholic Church in opposition to oral contraceptives. Both El Meskeen and Pope Paul VI responded to technological innovations that challenged the conflation of sexual practice and reproduction in Christian thought. Yet El Meskeen arrived at the opposite conclusion, fully embracing the birth control pill.

This paper situates El Meskeen’s writings within broader concerns over reproduction and communal autonomy in the Coptic Orthodox Church. Whereas scholars have often framed Coptic bioethical positions as products of theological exchange, this paper instead locates the emergence of a Coptic consensus on birth control within a culture of reproductive anxiety—understood as concern for both biological continuity and socio-cultural reproduction. Coptic Christian leaders engaged global Christian thought, but their stance on birth control and “quality reproduction” was more directly shaped by state-sponsored family planning initiatives in early Republican Egypt (1952–1968), which posed not only a theological challenge but also a perceived threat to Coptic communal autonomy.

By focusing on El Meskeen’s public endorsement of artificial contraception, the paper demonstrates that his intervention exceeded the bounds of ecclesiastical debate. Reproductive anxiety shaped how Copts negotiated rapid nationalization and the expanding reach of the postcolonial state into family life. In this context, family planning became a key site for the rearticulation of confessional belonging, as Coptic discourse sought to reconcile Christian tradition with emerging claims of national citizenship and state authority over bodies and social welfare.