Over the last five years, a growing number of single Muslim women in their mid-30s in Islamic countries — including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Egypt, among others — have been choosing to freeze their eggs to ensure motherhood later in life.

Earlier, egg freezing was hardly seen as an option by women in these countries — owing primarily to cultural beliefs and religious restrictions — but the trend is picking up now, especially among career-oriented women. Many make the decision because they intend to postpone marriage and motherhood responsibilities.

In 2021, data revealed by a fertility center operating across the Middle East showed that at least 60% of total egg freezing patient population were Arab women, as opposed to just 40% in 2019.

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Egg freezing, which is mature oocyte cryopreservation, is a method used to save a woman’s ability to get pregnant in future. Women go through hormone stimulation and egg collection prior to their eggs being cryopreserved. Frozen eggs are then stored in liquid nitrogen for years.

Several factors have led to the rising trend of women in Islamic countries opting for social egg freezing: Increasing education among women, larger participation of women in the labor-market force who are keen to build a career for themselves, and the choice to delay marriages and raising children are some of them.

The other important factor is increasing social acceptance. In 2021, for example, the UAE introduced a law that allowed single women to freeze their eggs for both health and social reasons. As per the law, the initial cryopreservation period is five years and can be extended by another five. But these single women are permitted to use the frozen eggs solely for their own pregnancy after marriage with their husband’s sperm in an IVF procedure.

In 2019, Dar Al-Ifta, Egypt’s Islamic body, issued a statement stating that the process of egg-freezing is “permissible” and that there is “no Islamic prohibition” if it is carried out under four certain conditions.

These conditions stated that egg freezing must not pose negative side effects on the fetus, eggs must be fertilized by the sperms of the husband while the couple is married, the fertilized eggs should be kept safe and not mixed with other preserved eggs and they must not be placed inside the womb of a woman who did not originally produce them. The fertilized eggs were barred from donation as well. 

Several social media influencers in the Arab countries have been promoting social egg freezing among single women, inviting more of them to opt for it. These initiatives have been helping to break the myths and misconceptions about the risks involved in freezing eggs by single women.

Many single women in Turkey opted to freeze their eggs ever since it became legal for them to do so in 2014. As marriage and motherhood are considered strongly enforced gender norms in Turkish society, childlessness has often become a source of stigmatization, so many educated women have chosen to increase their chances of future pregnancy by freezing their eggs. 

Single women in some Islamic countries, however, still face criticism from society for socially freezing their eggs. They are labelled as “selfish” for having their focus on career over making babies at the right time.

Meanwhile, some countries are still not ready to allow single women to make this choice for themselves. In Saudi Arabia, married couples face no limitations on egg storage or IVF treatments, but single women are not allowed to socially freeze their eggs. Similarly, although Bahrain allows an embryo to remain stored for five years, this facility is available only to married couples.

Single women in Tunisia, a country that often advocated for women’s rights in the Arab world, are now demanding the right to freeze their eggs. Currently, single women are permitted to freeze their eggs only if they are undergoing treatment — including chemotherapy — that can leave them infertile. 

In 2022, Malaysia stated that only non-Muslim women are allowed to freeze their eggs for nonmedical reasons, while Muslim women have to produce a valid medical reason to freeze their eggs. For Malaysia. ovarian tissue freezing is more compliant with Shariah than social egg freezing. Mature egg cells can be produced, collected and fertilized by the sperm of the husband once the frozen ovarian cortical tissue sections have been transplanted back into the woman during the period of a marriage contract.

Single women who are barred from social egg freezing in different Islamic countries see the ban as an infringement of their freedom toward their own body and reproductive autonomy. They want their reproductive rights to be protected.

With one set of Islamic countries bowing to these demands of single women, there is some hope that others may soon be forced to follow the suit.

Sonia Sarkar is a journalist based in India. She writes on conflict, religion, politics, health and gender rights from Southeast Asia. Her work has appeared in a range of international publications, including the South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia and Al Jazeera.