Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T18:47:35.250Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s New Population Policy and Recent Changes in Fertility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Marie Ladier-Fouladi
Marie Ladier-Fouladi*
Affiliation:
French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)/CETOBaC (Centre d’Études Turques, Ottomanes, Balkaniques et Centrasiatiques), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

After dropping rapidly and steadily over two decades, fertility in Iran stabilized between 2001 and 2011 at around 1.9 to 2 children per woman, before starting to rise slightly between 2012 and 2016, then falling fairly quickly. This coincided with the implementation of the Islamic Republic’s new population policy, with its aggressive and coercive measures, one of whose goals was to reverse the downwards trend in fertility. Given changes in proximate and remote determinants of fertility in Iran, and the decline in fertility since 2016, it is assumed that this new population policy triggered a reduction in intervals between births between 2012 and 2015, leading to a slight rise in the fertility of already married couples. The other latent objective of the Islamic Republic’s new population policy is to drive Iran’s population up to 150 million inhabitants in the near future. This is utopian given Iran’s demographic dynamics, but it conceals the political and ideological goal of asserting Iran’s demographic and geopolitical significance within the region, by drawing on a novel immigration policy to make up for its low fertility.

Keywords

Populationist PolicyFamily PlanningWomenFertilityContraceptiveMarriageWomen’s EducationNational IdentityIslamic Republic of Iran
Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 5-6 , December 2021 , pp. 907 - 930
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

A Selection of Labor Force Survey Results 2016 (Tchekideh tarheh âmârguiri nirouyeh kar sâle 1395). Tehran: Statistical Centre of Iran, 2017.Google Scholar
Aghajanian, Akbar. “Population Policy, Fertility and Family Planning in Iran.” In Fertility Policies of Asian Countries, ed. Mahadevan, K., 228–47. London: Sage, 1989.Google Scholar
Aghajanian, Akbar. “Population Change in Iran, 1966–1986: A Stalled Demographic Transition?” Population and Development Review 17, (no. 4 (1991): 703–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
An Analysis of Population Situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Tehran: UNFPA, 1993.Google Scholar
Annuaire des statistiques démographiques. Tehran: Vital Registration Organizations, 2018.Google Scholar
Azad Armaki, Taghi, Saïe, Mohamamd-Hossien Sharifi, Isari, Mariam, and Talebi, Sahar. “Living Together: Emergence of New Family Form in Tehran (Ham Khânegi; peydâyesh shecklhây-e djadid khânevadeh dar tehran). Cultural Sociology (Jâme’eh pajouhi-ye farhangi) 3, (no. 1 (2012): 43–77.Google Scholar
De Bel-Air, Françoise. “Quand la fécondité repart à la hausse de l’Égypte à la Jordanie.” Orient XXI, June 6, 2017. http://orientxxi.info/fr/auteur/francoise-de-bel-airGoogle Scholar
Fathi, Elham. Prospects for Fertility in Iran from 2016 to 2018 (Tchashm andazi bar barvari dar iran az sal-e 1395 ta 1398). Tehran: Statistical Center of Iran, 2019.Google Scholar
Fauret, Simon. “Le corps des Gardiens de la révolution iranienne.” Groupe Gaulliste Sceaux, June 19, 2015. https://groupegaullistesceaux.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/le-corps-des-gardiens-de-la-revolutionGoogle Scholar
General Population and Housing Census of 1966, 1976, 1986, 1996, 2006 and 2016 (sar shomarie oumoumi nofous va maskan 1345, 1355, 1365, 1375, 1385, 1395), Statistical Center of Iran.Google Scholar
Hosseini-Chavoshi, Meimanat, McDonald, Peter, and Abbasi-Shavazi, Mohammad-Jalal. “Fertility, Marriage, and Family Planning in Iran: Implications for Future Policy.” Population Horizon 13, no. 1 (2016): 31–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosseini-Chavoshi, Meimanat, McDonald, Peter, and Abbasi-Shavazi, Mohammad-Jalal. “The Iranian Fertility Decline, 1981–1999: An Application of the Synthetic Parity Progression Ratio Method.” Population, 61, no. 5 (2006): 701–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iran Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS). Tehran: Ministry of Health and Medical Education and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2000.Google Scholar
Ladier-Fouladi, Marie. La République islamique vue de l’intérieur, Vulaines-sur-Seine: Éditions du Croquant, 2020.Google Scholar
Ladier-Fouladi, Marie. “Socio-demographic Changes in the Family and their Impact on the Socio-Political Behavior of the Youth in Post-Revolutionary Iran.” In Iran from the Theocracy to the Green Movement, ed. Navabi, Negin, 137–65. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.Google Scholar
Ladier-Fouladi, Marie. Iran un monde de paradoxes. Nantes: l’Atalante, coll. Comme un accordéon, 2009.Google Scholar
Ladier-Fouladi, Marie. Population et politique en Iran: De la monarchie à la République islamique. Paris: Les Cahiers de l’INED (150), INED-PUF, 2003.Google Scholar
Ladier-Fouladi, Marie. “The Fertility Transition in Iran.” Population: An English Selection no. 9 (1997): 191–214.Google Scholar
Liberman, S.S., Gillespie, Robert, and Loghmani, M.. “The Isfahan Communication Project.” Studies of Family Planning no. 4 (1973): 73–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, Peter, Hosseini-Chavoshi, Meimanat, Abbasi-Shavazi, Mohammad-Jalal, and Rashidian, Arash. “ An Assessment of Recent Iranian Fertility Trends Using Parity Progression Ratios.” Demographic Research 32 (2015): 1581–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malek Afzali, Hossein. “Jamiyat va tanzime khânevâdeh dar joumhouri-e eslâmi-e irân” [Population and Family Planning under the Islamic Republic of Iran]. Nabz [Pulse] no. 2 (1992): 3–7.Google Scholar
Moore, Richard, Asayesh, Khalili, and Montagne, Joel. “Population and Family Planning in Iran.” In The Population of Iran: A Selection of Readings, ed. Momeni, Jamshid, 282–94, Honolulu: East–West Population Institute and Shiraz Pahlavi University, 1977.Google Scholar
Ouadah-Bedidi, Zahia. “Plus de doute, la fécondité augmente en Algérie.” Orient XXI, April 4, 2017. http://orientxxi.info/auteur/zahia-ouadah-bedidi.Google Scholar
Sokhanrani va dalayel-e raïs jomhour baraye roshd-e djamiyat [Speeches and reasons of the President of the Republic about population growth]. Daftar-e motaleât-e zanân [Bureau for women’s studies], Khabaronline [Iranian information agency], January 26, 2011, http://www.khabaronline.ir/news-125864.aspxGoogle Scholar