Khamenei says contraceptive policy made sense 20 years ago, 'but its continuation in later years was wrong.' Columnist: Change in policy may be attempt to send world message that Islamic Republic not suffering from sanctions.
Iran's new message to parents: Get busy and have babies.
In a major reversal
of once far-reaching family planning policies, authorities are now slashing its
birth-control programs in an attempt to avoid an aging demographic similar to
many Western countries that are struggling to keep up with state medical and
social security costs.
The changes -
announced in Iranian media last week - came after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei described the country's wide-ranging contraceptive services as
"wrong." The independent Shargh newspaper quoted Mohammad Esmail
Motlaq, a Health Ministry official, as saying family planning programs have
been cut from the budget for the current Iranian year, which began in March.
It's still unclear, however, whether the high-level
appeals for bigger families will translate into a new population spike. Iran's
economy is stumbling under a combination of international sanctions, inflation
and double-digit unemployment. Many young people, particularly in Tehran and
other large cities, are postponing marriage or keeping their families small
because of the uncertainties.
Ali Reza Khamesian, a columnist whose work appears in
several pro-reform newspapers, said the change in policy also may be an attempt
to send a message to the world that Iran is not suffering from sanctions
imposed over the nuclear program that the West suspects is aimed at producing
weapons - something Tehran denies.
Abbas Kazemi, a
doorman in a private office building, said he cannot afford to have more than
two children with his salary of about $220 (4.2 million rials) a month.
"I cannot afford daily life," he said. "I
have to support my wife and two children as well my elderly parents."
'The culture still exists in the rural areas'
More than half of Iran's population is under 35 years
old. Those youth form the base of opposition groups, including the so-called
Green Movement that led unprecedented street protests after President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009. Some experts have said that trying
to boost the numbers for upcoming generations also could feed future political
dissent.
"Young people are the heart of the Arab Spring, or
the Islamic Awakening as Iran calls it," said Mustafa Alani, an analyst at
the Gulf Research Center based in Geneva. "Countries that haven't faced
major protests during the Arab Spring still have to be mindful that the demands
of the youth are still there."
The policy shift brings the country full circle.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, families were strongly
encouraged to contribute to a baby boom demanded by leader Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, who wanted fast population growth to contribute to a "20 million
member army" in support of the ruling theocracy. In 1986, toward the end of
the eight-year war with Iraq, census figures show the population's growth rate
reached 3.9% - among the highest in the world at the time and in line with
Persian traditions that favor big families.
But the leadership just as quickly hit the brakes in the
1990s, fearing a galloping population could overwhelm the economy. Iran became
a regional leader in family-planning options, including offering free or
subsidized condoms and other contraceptives, and issuing religious edicts in
favor of vasectomies. One clinic in Tehran promoted its vasectomy services in
huge letters atop a water tower.
Banners at public
health care centers urged smaller families as a path to a better life. By 2011,
the most recent period for which figures are available, Iran's population
growth had fallen to one of the lowest in region - 1.3%.
The official policy changes began in 2005 after the
election of President Ahmadinejad, who called the birth control measures
ungodly and a Western import. In 2009, he unveiled proposals for each new baby
to receive $950 in a government bank account and then get $95 every year until
reaching 18.
On Wednesday, Khamenei said contraceptive policy made
sense 20 years ago, "but its continuation in later years was wrong."
"Scientific and experts studies show that we will
face population aging and reduction (in population) if the birth-control policy
continues," said Khamenei a day after the Statistical Center of Iran said
the country's population had reached more than 75.1 million - more than double
its 33.7 million in 1976.
Ali Reza Mesdaghinia, the deputy health minister, told
the semiofficial Fars news agency on Sunday that population control programs
"belonged to the past."
"There is no plan to keep number of the children at
one or two. Families should decide about it by themselves," said
Mesdaghinia. "In our culture, having a large number of children has been a
tradition. In the past families had five or six children. ... The culture still
exists in the rural areas. We should go back to our genuine culture."
Lawmaker Moayed Hoseini said on the parliament's website
that some 100 lawmakers have signed a bill aimed at canceling the pro-family
planning laws from the early 1990s.
A midwife, Fatemeh Iranmanesh, said the number of
pregnancies climbed in rural areas after Ahmadinejad's promise for greater aid
to families. "Sometime a pregnant mother comes to me with her last infant
still breast-feeding," she said.
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22/05/2008| |
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29/03/2008| |
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30/03/2007| |
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29/11/2006| |
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29/11/2006| |
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25/10/2006| |
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28/09/2005| |
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30/11/1999| |
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30/11/1999| |
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