Mandatory Policies Ineffective

Tehran, July 6, IRNA -- Experience shows that mandatory policies imposed by the government in the past few years failed to produce the expected results, said the vice president for women and family affairs. Sunday edition of the English language newspaper Iran Daily quoted Shahindokht Molaverdi also referring to the ratification of the outlines of a controversial plan on increasing fertility rate in Majlis and said no country has adopted a punitive and mandatory approach for implementing its population policy. The vice president noted that such measures will not only be ineffective in increasing fertility rate, but also take contraceptive services underground. “Instead of increasing population, the implementation of such policies will cause the number of prisoners to rise, which is against the strategies adopted by the judiciary,” she said. She believes that offering special privileges to youths will help encourage them to marry and have children, which will help protect the health of mother and baby, and give couples sufficient time between pregnancies. Molaverdi noted that the general population policies recently notified to state entities are realistic. The Iranian Parliament recently ratified the outline of a single urgency plan banning vasectomies and tightening abortion rules to increase the birthrate. Touran Vali-Morad, secretary of Islamic Women’s Coalition, said whether or not to undergo birth-control surgery is a totally private matter and personal boundaries cannot be violated by laws and regulations. “Every human being has the right to choose and is responsible for his/her own deeds,” she said, calling for more studies to find the causes of low birthrate in Iran. The official said living in insecure families is the main reason behind the sharp decline in Iran’s population. “Rising marriage age, immigration of people of marriageable age, drug addiction and divorce rates are other causes of low population growth in Iran,” she said./end