WUNRN
The Supreme Leader of Iran is the head of state and highest ranking political and religious authority in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The post was established by the constitution in accordance with the concept of Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists.[3] The leader is considered more powerful than the President of Iran and appoints the heads of many powerful posts in the military, the civil government, and the judiciary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Leader_of_Iran
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/15/iran-ban-vasectomies-birthrate
IRAN CONSIDERS BAN ON VASECTOMIES & TIGHTENING ON ABORTION, IN DRIVE TO BOOST BIRTHRATE
Supreme leader sees family planning policy as an imitation of western
lifestyle and aims to double
15 April 2014 - Iran's parliament is seeking a ban on
vasectomies and a tightening of abortion rules as the country moves away from
its progressive laws on family planning in an attempt to increase the birthrate.
Two decades after
Last year the supreme leader, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei,
criticised existing policy on contraception, describing it as an imitation of
western lifestyle.
The 74-year-old has urged the
government to tackle what he believes to be an ageing population and to double
the number of people in
This week
The semi-official
"If we move forward like
this, we will be a country of elderly people in a not too distant future,"
Khamenei said in October, according to
"The reasons need to be
studied. We are not a country of 75 million, we have [the capacity] to become
at least 150 million people, if not more."
Khamenei has made similar remarks
in a number of speeches, prompting authorities to slash subsidies for
vasectomies and curb the government budget for family planning programmes.
Under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, the government promised free gold coins
if couples had more babies.
Kamiar Alaei, a
Alaei said the blame for the slow
birthrate lay with social, economic and cultural hurdles preventing Iranian
youth from marriage and making babies, rather than the country's successful
family planning policies.
"More than half of the
population consists of young people between the age of 20 and 30 … but they are
not able to procreate because social, economic problems are stopping them from
marriage," he said. "The blame should be on those problems, not a
policy that has worked quite well."
About 70% of
After the 1979 Islamic revolution
Iran's population doubled within 10-11 years, to almost 60 million, as
authorities encouraged a baby boom in light of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war,
Alaei said.
The family planning policies
initiated in the 1990s brought the growth under control.
"We have enough young people
who will procreate when they marry in the coming years," Alaei said.
"Slashing contraceptive services altogether will only increase
unintentional abortion and maternal mortality."
It is not clear whether the
health ministry approves of the parliamentary, bill but it would be unlikely to
challenge Khamenei's view on the issue, at least publicly.
Despite this,
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