Fertility, Marriage, and Family Planning in Iran: Implications for Future Policy (original) (raw)
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Iran’s Shift in Family Planning Policies: Concerns and Challenges
2014
Iran’s significant success in implementing Family Planning (FP) during the past 25 years, has made it a role model in the world. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in Iran has dropped from 6.5 in 1960 to 1.6 in 2012, which is well below the targeted value of 2.2 for the country. Iran’s success story, however, did not merely root in the implementation of FP programs. In other words, families’ strong tendency to limit fertility and delayed marriages had an undeniable role in decreasing the TFR. On the other hand, Iranian policy-makers are very concerned about such a decrease and have recently restricted access to contraception, while outlawing any surgery that reduces fertility. This paper, tries to highlight the pros and cons of such restrictive policies, and argue that the policy-makers might be jeopardizing the success of Iran’s FP program by overestimating its role in the TFR reduction rate.
A solid international legal framework for family planning supports national family planning programs. Yet it is not by itself a program guarantee, especially among Muslim nations, many of which have stalled FP transitions and weak or absent government assistance for FP programs. The success of Iran’s family planning program, therefore, is all the more noteworthy. Since its establishment in 1993, it has been one of the most successful state family planning (FP) programs in the world, having reduced the national annual growth rate from 2.7% in the late 1960s to little over 1% currently. This paper explores international and national legal, institutional, demographic, and cultural-geographical influences that may have contributed to its results.
RAPID FERTILITY DECLINE IN IRAN: ANALYSIS OF INTERMEDIATE VARIABLES
Journal of Biosocial Science, 2008
The remarkable decline in fertility in Iran, which saw the total fertility rate fall from 7 children per woman in 1986 to 2 in 2000, has received only limited analysis in the demographic literature. Using the 2000 Iran Demographic and Health Survey and Bongaarts' age-specific fertility model, this paper examines the role of the major proximate determinants of fertility in bringing about the rapid decrease in fertility in Iran. The analysis indicates that contraception had the largest effect on fertility, accounting for 61% of the reduction in fertility from its theoretical maximum. The fertility-inhibiting effect of marriage patterns accounted for an additional 31% reduction, and was most important among the young. Further analysis of contraceptive behaviour suggests that the current period fertility rate of 2·0 children per woman is an outcome of a synchronization of delaying and spacing of births among younger women with stopping of childbearing among women in the middle and late reproductive ages. The policy implications of the results are discussed.
Uncomfortable Companions: Fertility Decline and Ideology in Iran
New Security Beat (online), 2018
It should be an excellent time to be a young Iranian: High school and college enrollments in the Islamic Republic rank near the top of Muslim-majority countries. Women have only about two children on average, compared to 6.5 in the mid-1980s. And childhood mortality is projected to approach North American levels in the next 15 years. Yet, as the recent protests show, many young Iranians feel left out. Job growth-especially for young adults-has failed to keep pace with development, while persistently high rates of inflation steadily drive up the cost of living and cut deeply into Iranians' savings.
Factors Affecting Fertility Rate in Iran (Panel Data 1966-2013): A Survey Study
Journal of Family & Reproductive Health, 2017
Objective: Population and its corresponding problems are among multidimensional and complicated issues of human communities and their related features are the basis for making any plan or policy. Fertility, as one of the principle components of population growth, is an issue that has always been taken into consideration and extensive research has been carried out to recognize factors affecting on it. Therefore, the authors decided to study the most important factors influencing fertility rate in Iran by conducting a longitudinal study and considering the effect of various time periods on its population changes. Materials and methods: This is a descriptive-analytic study. Its required information is a combination of cross-sectional and time series data (panel data) that were extracted from 1966 to 2013 from Iran’s population categorized by the country’s 24 provinces and from statistical yearbooks of Statistical Center of Iran and Organization of Civil Registration. The final estimati...