Worried about its demographic decline, the Islamic Republic of Iran is accelerating the questioning of the birth control policy. Simine (first name has been changed), a general practitioner in a village of 3,000 inhabitants in the south of the country, remembers receiving the new directive from the Ministry of Health in mid-fall 2020. “We were ordered to stop the free distribution of all means of contraception among the population”, explains this 30-year-old practitioner. So she wrote a list mentioning what was left in the clinic: “Condoms, IUDs and a few doses of progestins [une méthode contraceptive hormonale]. “
She then gathered it all up and returned it to the nearest pharmacy. “Now patients have to procure contraception themselves if they wish. We can’t give them anything anymore ”, she regrets. For the vasectomy and tubal ligation, it got even more complicated. “We no longer recommend these interventions. It is up to the patients to request it [au secteur privé] and to pay them at so-called “free” prices, ie not covered by social security. “
These latest measures are part of a policy initiated several years ago by Tehran: in 2012 already, the Supreme Guide, Ali Khamenei, had assigned the objective of doubling the country’s population to reach 150 million inhabitants. The country’s highest authority was already criticizing the strict family planning policy undertaken after the baby boom of the 1980s. “The slogan“ Two children is enough”[omniprésent à l’époque] was part of an erroneous Western policy “, then denounced Ali Khamenei.
Increase the fertility rate
As of 2014, vasectomy and tubal ligation could therefore only be performed for very specific cases, families with at least four children or for women with high-risk pregnancies. But, unlike today, doctors could still suggest these operations to their patients.
These restrictions did not seem sufficient to Ali Khamenei, who returned to the charge in the summer of 2020. During his first speech, in July, addressed to the new Parliament, mainly conservative and well inclined to apply to the letter demands the Guide, he announced: “We must give a lot of importance to the question of the birth rate and fear the aging of the population. A law and strict monitoring of the executive bodies are necessary. “
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