Ultimately, Egyptians, seeing that life had become so unbearable under the new “enlightened” regime of Mehmed Ali because of corvée, taxation, monopolies, imprisonment and, above all, conscription, decided that even if they could bear these atrocities themselves, there was no reason why they should see their own children subjected to the same fate. Thus a new method of resistance developed which reflected the Egyptians’ utter despair: they simply refused to marry and have children. In 1828 Mehmed Ali wrote to the Director of his War Department, Mahmud Bey, telling him that a lot of fellahin were abstaining from marriage in order to avoid seeing their children being subjected to these various government demands, e.g. taxation and imprisonment. He therefore ordered him to suggest means to issue orders to the shaykhs that would meet government demands and at the same time pacify the fellahin and discourage them from this habit, since “the prosperity of the country depends on increasing its population.”

XREF: Builds on the pattern of escalating conscription-evasion tactics (self-maiming, flight, resistance) — this is a final, extreme resort. Connects to earlier highlights at loc 471, 472, 590, 1352 about peasant resistance. Builds on: "Fellahin maiming widened into an escalating conscription evasion arms race."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1355