Iran’s Ministry of Science has called for the removal of educational content deemed to discourage childbearing as the country is intensifying efforts to combat declining fertility rates.
At a meeting of the Ministry of Science's Population Youth Headquarters on Sunday, Science Minister Hossein Simaei Saraf also announced further incentives to help boost the reducing population growth.
Proposals include increasing the construction of married student dormitories, establishing on-campus kindergartens, and increasing financial support for housing deposits, educational loans, and other benefits to incentivise married students with children.
In a move to promote childbirth, Saraf urged expanding and strengthening university programs related to the role of family and women within an Islamic-Iranian cultural framework, saying that “fields like home and family management should be prioritized and educational content discouraging childbearing removed.”
The initiative follows a directive issued by the Ministry of Science under former president Ebrahim Raisi and has been reiterated by the current Minister of Science.
The Ministry of Science had previously issued a directive in April mandating the removal of any educational content deemed contrary to promoting childbearing from university curricula. The directive was issued in accordance with the "Family Support and Population Youth" law, which also provides benefits for student mothers, such as maternity leave.
The "Population Youth" law, approved by the Guardian Council in October 2021, was passed by a joint committee of the parliament without being debated on the main floor.
The law grants certain financial and employment benefits to individuals with children while simultaneously restricting access to contraception and abortion. Human rights organizations have criticized the law for violating Iranian women's sexual and reproductive rights and autonomy.
The policies are part of a broader push for population growth initiated more than a decade ago, following repeated calls from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In 2012, university curricula dropped family planning courses that covered contraception. Economic incentives, such as marriage loans, have also been promoted to encourage larger families.
However, the pro-childbearing policies face significant financial hurdles.
According to the head of the Student Welfare Fund of the Ministry, over 10 trillion rials (approximately $12.5 million) in housing deposit loans have been disbursed to married students since March 2022. An additional 6.8 trillion rials (approximately $8.5 million)is earmarked for this purpose this year, which started March 20, 2024, Masoud Ganji added.
Mohammadreza Farzin, the head of the Central Bank of Iran, said in September that there are insufficient funds within the banking system to meet the demand for marriage and childbearing loans, estimating a need for 8 quadrillion rials (approximately $100 million) to fulfill existing applications raising questions about the feasibility of the government's ambitious population plans.
Government efforts to encourage higher birth rates in Iran have failed to produce results, according to data from the National Organization for Civil Registration. Births declined by more than 17,000 in the Iranian year that began on March 21, 2023, compared to the previous year, with the average children per family down from six to three.
Addressing rapid demographic shifts, Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi warned in November that declining birth rates could lead to a significantly smaller, aging population, with projections indicating a sharp decline.
He warned that by 2101, the population could shrink by as much as 50%, with nearly half of the country potentially classified as elderly.
The country's financial crisis has also contributed to the drop in fertility rates, with over a third of Iranians now living below the poverty line, with inflation staying above 40% for five consecutive years.
Socio-cultural factors compounding the drop include shifting social norms, and urban lifestyle changes, which are increasingly affecting family planning choices.
