Ahmadinejad to Iran: family planning is ungodly!

[Sea Skimmer]

Iran will pay for new babies to boost population
Ahmadinejad dismisses family planning as ungodly, a Western import

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated a new policy on Tuesday to encourage population growth, dismissing Iran's decades of family planning as ungodly and a Western import.

The new government initiative will pay families for every new child and deposit money into the newborn's bank account until they reach 18, effectively rolling back years of efforts to boost the economy by reducing the country's runaway population growth.

"Those who raise idea of family planning, they are thinking in the realm of the secular world," Ahmadinejad said during the inauguration ceremony.

The plan is part of Ahmadinejad's stated commitment to further increase Iran's population, which is already estimated at 75 million. He has previously said the country could feed up to 150 million.

The program would be especially attractive to the lower income segments of the population who supported Ahmadinejad in the 2005 and 2009 elections.

Throughout his tenure, the president has promoted populist policies in Iran, where 10 million people are estimated to live under the poverty line.

Starting in the early 1970s, Iran waged a successful family planning campaign across the country, including banners in public health care centers reading "two children are enough."

It was reversed after the 1979 Islamic revolution only to be brought back 10 years later when the population ballooned and the economy faltered.

Throughout the 1990s, Iran tried to reduce population growth by encouraging men and women to use free or inexpensive contraceptives, as well as vasectomies. The government brought down the country's population growth rate from its 1986 height of 3.9 percent to just 1.6 percent in 2006.

Ahmadinejad caused public outcry, however, when shortly after he was elected in 2005 he said two children per family were not enough and urged Iranians to have more.

Under the new plan each child born in the current Iranian year, which began March 21, will receive a deposit of $950 in a government bank account. They will then continue to receive another $95 every year until they reach 18. Parents will also be expected to pay matching funds into the accounts.

Under the initiative's rules children can withdraw the money at the age of 20 and use it for education, marriage, health and housing.

Iran's official unemployment rate is about 10 percent, but estimates say there are 3 million unemployed people of working age in the country.

Following the earlier baby boom, some 26 million Iranians are between the ages of 15 and 30.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38434672/ns ... tn_africa/

I guess Ahmadinejad thinks Iran needs more cannon fodder to make up for its lack of Army modernization. Breeding more votes is handy too.

[Tribun]

I doubt he'll have much success. The birth rate already has dropped on the level of Europe (the rate of Thereran in even lower than that of Eastern Germany, quite a feat). Reversing that takes more than just money.

[UnderAGreySky]

This is nothing new for Islam - most hardline Islamists take a very dim view of contraception, abortion or any sort of family planning. It's one of the biggest obstacles in India to reducing population growth, illiteracy and fundamentalism going hand-in-hand.

BBC Article on Contraception in Islam and another on Islam Awareness. Both seem to agree that the only acceptable way is Coitus Interruptus. The latter is quite melodramatic about birth control...

[Straha]

Actually, this is very new for Iran and Shia Islam. In the late 1980s Khomeini, Montazeri, Khameini and a number of other senior clerics pushed family planning across the country, and said it was a divine mandate to make sure that families only increased within their, and their country's, capabilities. This thread was very active throughout the 90s and into the early 2000s, and Ahmadinejad going against it is actually a major reversal in Iranian public policy.

Of course, the policy was only put in place after a population explosion in the early 80s triggered by religious fanaticism, anti-Shah backlash, and a desire to make babies to fight Iraq (they sort of did the math wrong there.) But that doesn't change the fact that this is a recantation of a quarter century of religious teaching.

[Hillary]

Ahmadinejad for Pope!

To be honest, it is hardly a surprising stance for a man who wishes his religion to achieve world domination..

It's one of the biggest obstacles in India to reducing population growth, illiteracy and fundamentalism going hand-in-hand.

Except for the fact that 80%+ of India's population is Hindu and only 12% Muslim.

[Straha]

It's one of the biggest obstacles in India to reducing population growth, illiteracy and fundamentalism going hand-in-hand.

Except for the fact that 80%+ of India's population is Hindu and only 12% Muslim.

A Hindu fundamentalist is still a fundamentalist and Hindu fundamentalists can be just as scary as a Jewish/Muslim/Christian Fundie. Just look at Kashmir, or any number of the various religious restrictions imposed on India.

[Hillary]

It's one of the biggest obstacles in India to reducing population growth, illiteracy and fundamentalism going hand-in-hand.

Except for the fact that 80%+ of India's population is Hindu and only 12% Muslim.

A Hindu fundamentalist is still a fundamentalist and Hindu fundamentalists can be just as scary as a Jewish/Muslim/Christian Fundie. Just look at Kashmir, or any number of the various religious restrictions imposed on India.

And? I was responding to his claim that Islamic rules on no contraception is one of the biggest issues for Indian population control. It isn't.

The reasons for Indian population growth are the same as for any country with a substantional proportion of its population being poor and uneducated.

[Simon_Jester]

Though that ties right back into the religious rules. Poor uneducated people are most likely to listen to the kind of lunacy UnderAGreySky is citing; saying "they don't have too many kids beecause they're listening to stupid fanatics, they have too many kids because they're poor and uneducated" doesn't make sense to me.

[Cecelia5578]

This is nothing new for Islam - most hardline Islamists take a very dim view of contraception, abortion or any sort of family planning. It's one of the biggest obstacles in India to reducing population growth, illiteracy and fundamentalism going hand-in-hand.

BBC Article on Contraception in Islam and another on Islam Awareness. Both seem to agree that the only acceptable way is Coitus Interruptus. The latter is quite melodramatic about birth control...

yeah but as Straha has pointed out this is hardly the same as bog standard Sunni fundamentalism-this is someone going against the theological establishment, so it's more revolutionary than fundamentalist. I'm not really sure the term fundamentalism really is appropriate for talking about Shiites anyways, as the f word really in modern times has a Sunni connotation (Wahabis and their I'll) and if anything Ahmadinejad is being influenced by Sunni fundentalism than anything Sh'ia related

[Kanastrous]

Maybe he's anticipating a need for a few thousand kids to detonate land mines ahead of the IRIA, some time within the next fifteen or sixteen years.

[UnderAGreySky]

Apologies, I meant "Muslims in India reducing the population growth rate". Can't disagree on the Hindu fanatics either. The government tries to give incentives (like reduced benefits if you have more than four kids) but the best way seems to be lifting them out of poverty and illiteracy.

[Vehrec]

When you educate women, you keep them from getting married for a few more years. Suddenly, girls aren't getting married at 14, they're getting married at 19. Or 22. Or even 29 years old! That's a huge amount of their reproductive years snipped off, and since providing an education costs money, once you commit to educating your daughters and sons, you're probably going to have fewer of them.

Not to mention the fact that you can include sex education courses....

[Sarevok]

Does not Israel also encourage large families ?

Maybe Iran is thinking along same lines. They need all the shia people they can get to overwhelm the jews and arab sunnis.