Iran'snew message to parents: Get busy and have babies.
In a major reversal of once far-reaching family planning policies, authoritiesare now slashing its birth-control programs in an attempt to avoid an agingdemographic similar to many Western countries that are struggling to keep upwith state medical and social security costs.
The changes — announced in Iranian media last week — came after Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei described the country's wide-ranging contraceptiveservices as "wrong." The independent Shargh newspaper quoted MohammadEsmail Motlaq, a Health Ministry official, as saying family planning programshave been cut from the budget for the current Iranian year, which began inMarch.
It's still unclear, however, whether the high-level appeals for bigger familieswill translate into a new population spike. Iran's economy is stumbling under acombination of international sanctions, inflation and double-digitunemployment. Many young people, particularly in Tehran and other large cities,are postponing marriage or keeping their families small because of theuncertainties.
Ali Reza Khamesian, a columnist whose work appears in several pro-reformnewspapers, said the change in policy also may be an attempt to send a messageto the world that Iran is not suffering from sanctions imposed over the nuclearprogram that the West suspects is aimed at producing weapons — something Tehrandenies.
Abbas Kazemi, a doorman in a private office building, said he cannot afford tohave more than two children with his salary of about $220 (4.2 million rials) amonth.
"I cannot afford daily life," he said. "I have to support mywife and two children as well my elderly parents."
More than half of Iran's population is under 35 years old. Those youth form thebase of opposition groups, including the so-called Green Movement that ledunprecedented street protests after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputedre-election in 2009. Some experts have said that trying to boost the numbersfor upcoming generations also could feed future political dissent.
"Young people are the heart of the Arab Spring, or the Islamic Awakeningas Iran calls it," said Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Gulf ResearchCenter based in Geneva. "Countries that haven't faced major protestsduring the Arab Spring still have to be mindful that the demands of the youthare still there."
The policy shift brings the country full circle.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, families were strongly encouraged tocontribute to a baby boom demanded by leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, whowanted fast population growth to contribute to a "20 million memberarmy" in support of the ruling theocracy. In 1986, toward the end of theeight-year war with Iraq, census figures show the population's growth ratereached 3.9 percent — among the highest in the world at the time and in linewith Persian traditions that favor big families.
But the leadership just as quickly hit the brakes in the 1990s, fearing agalloping population could overwhelm the economy. Iran became a regional leaderin family-planning options, including offering free or subsidized condoms andother contraceptives, and issuing religious edicts in favor of vasectomies. Oneclinic in Tehran promoted its vasectomy services in huge letters atop a watertower.
Banners at public health care centers urged smaller families as a path to abetter 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 — 1.3percent.
The official policy changes began in 2005 after the election of PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad, who called the birth control measures ungodly and aWestern 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 reaching18.
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 agingand reduction (in population) if the birth-control policy continues," saidKhamenei a day after the Statistical Center of Iran said the country'spopulation had reached more than 75.1 million — more than double its 33.7million in 1976.
Ali Reza Mesdaghinia, the deputy health minister, told the semiofficial Farsnews agency on Sunday that population control programs "belonged to thepast."
"There is no plan to keep number of the children at one or two. Familiesshould decide about it by themselves," said Mesdaghinia. "In ourculture, having a large number of children has been a tradition. In the pastfamilies had five or six children. ... The culture still exists in the ruralareas. We should go back to our genuine culture."
Lawmaker Moayed Hoseini said on the parliament's website that some 100lawmakers have signed a bill aimed at canceling the pro-family planning lawsfrom the early 1990s.
A midwife, Fatemeh Iranmanesh, said the number of pregnancies climbed in ruralareas after Ahmadinejad's promise for greater aid to families. "Sometime apregnant mother comes to me with her last infant still breast-feeding,"she said.