The education and research committee of Iran’s parliament approved a bill to prevent the slowdown in the population growth of the country. The assembly approved the urgency of the bill by a vote of 131 in favor in March. If the full Majlis and the Guardians Council approve it, the law will ban abortions and any publicity to reduce births and promote family controls.
Rooz spoke with Abdolvahid Fayazi the spokeswoman of Majlis’s education and research committee who explained that the committee had approved the bill while discussions and review of the details continue. The final decision in committee will be made by health committee before it goes to the full house.
According to Fayazi, the criticism over the bill is that it does not address the consequences of eliminating pre-marital couples’s orientation sessions which were not discussed in the hearings. She herself supports the lifting of family planning policies.
Critics, some of in the Majlis, have said there is no need to directly utilize marriage to increase the country’s population which could be achieved through economic incentives and other tools.”What the supreme leader has stressed is not that we should pass laws and order the increase in the population. Clearly if economic conditions permit and if marriages can take place through fewer burdens for the youth, then families would have more children,” she said.
This point made us ask her why did the representatives not pursue that line of thinking to which she replied, “The Majlis has had plenty of economic and employment laws, which do not seem to have had an effect on population growth. Today there is concern about a rise in the birthrate and at the same time a fall in the rate. This bill addresses part of the issue and subsequent bills will address the issue of employment, housing and wedding issues.”
“We will have a spiritual crisis in the future and so must work on it from now. The issue of a single child family is an important discussion because such families will have a spiritual emotional problem. Greater number of children in a family will bring a stronger solidarity for the unit and will safeguard many of the emotional issues,” she said.
The bill to encourage population grow currently in the Majlis bans all forms of birth control from vasectomy to tubectomy or any form of publicity favoring birth control. The punitive measures include two to five years of prison. Iran’s ministry of health is charged with identifying violators of the law and introducing them to judiciary officials.
Nassrolah Pejmanfar, a member of the cultural committee of the Majlis had said earlier, “The services that were offered to control birth rates were an obstacle to population growth which will be eliminated when this bill turns into law.”
A supporter and introducer of the bill Hosseinali Shahriyari, a member of the health committee of the Mjalis had earlier said “More than 20 percent of the families of this country have just a single child. But the continuation of this trend will result in that our children will not have uncles and aunties.” He referenced ayatollah Khamenei’s call for a rise in the population of the country and said, “The marriage age has risen to over 25 years. What the leader had in mind is that a growing population to meet the goals of Islam and the revolution.”
On the other side of the debate is Mehrdad Baooj Lahooti in the Majlis who said, “One of the issues that needs to be addressed before a population growth is that the marriage age has gone up and the youth has unemployment and housing problems. So, first young people need to be encouraged to get married.”
Sneaking Into People’s Bedrooms
While policies to raise the population growth have been around for a while, they are taking a different color this year. Maryam Rahmani, women’s human rights activities told Rooz, “The family in Iran is becoming more democratic. The totalitarian regime does not want such a change because it will ultimately lose its power base. This regime want to push women back into the house and limit their public role, channeling them to become mothers and wives only.”
“The regime has no right to sneak into people’s bedrooms,” she continued. “Such programs will hurt women, particularly those with the lowest incomes, the most. According to her, the free distribution of birth control devices was stopped last year. “Birth control pills are usually harmful to women and a better practice in this regard is to use condoms. But these are very expensive and a regular working class family can’t afford it,” she explained.
Women’s groups in Iran have been criticizing the official policy of encouraging larger families and ending birth control programs because they view such programs to be essentially anti women and their rights. On the other hand some groups and individuals that support larger families are insulting in their advocacy. Hassan Rahimpour is one of them who used his Majlis pulpit to say, “Some women argue that they do not want to become pregnant because this would impact their figure. To hell with the figure. Do you want to take your figure to the gates of heaven? Do you want to show it off in the street or to take it to your grave? Your body is for your husband and of course your husband is there for you to bring children.”
These remarks were made a few years ago but they recently brought forth criticism from ayatollah Mohaghegh Damad who said, “Shame on us for making such insults on national television while we remain silent.” He continued, “Fortunately the person who said these words is not a cleric, otherwise I would have died of shame.”
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