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The Politics of Population Policy in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Author(s) -
Hoodfar Homa,
Assadpour Samad
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
studies in family planning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.529
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1728-4465
pISSN - 0039-3665
DOI - 10.1111/j.1728-4465.2000.00019.x
Subject(s) - islamic republic , islam , politics , population , political science , development economics , socioeconomics , economic growth , medicine , geography , environmental health , economics , law , archaeology
The Islamic Republic of Iran arguably has one of the most successful family planning programs in the developing world. This success is all the more interesting for advocates of population programs because the political leaders of the Islamic regime were once strongly opposed to family planning. Indeed, after gaining power following the 1979 revolution, they were responsible for dismantling Iran's relatively new family planning program and introducing pronatalist policies. This article provides an account of the different phases of the population policy in Iran and examines the diverse elements that led politicoreligious leaders to revise their views about fertility control and to participate in creating a workable family planning program. The complex formal and informal strategies that the political experts, the media, the religious authorities, and the government of the Islamic Republic adopted in order to achieve this about‐face are described. The analysis is based on data collected by the first author during anthropological field research in 1993–96, by means of informal interviews with officials, with medical personnel, with family planning clients, and with religious leaders