Iran Bans Permanent Forms of Contraception and Advertising of Birth Control

Iran’s parliament has continued to follow the religious dictates of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali no matter how bizarre or repressive. So, when Khamenei ordered people to procreate “strengthen national identity” and counter “undesirable aspects of western lifestyles,” the parliament responded by banning permanent forms of birth control like vasectomies and tubal ligations while also banning advertising of birth control in the country.

Khamenei direction to procreate reverses the earlier policy of “fewer kids, better life.” If that seems an odd contradiction, just remember that is why he is “supreme.”

Khamenei wants to reverse a decline in Iran’s population. Some reformists however believe it has a different purposes. Iranian women continue to seek higher education and leadership roles. The new directive is viewed as a conservative effort to force women back into more traditional roles.

Of course, it also denies one of the most basic human rights over privacy and individual rights in the area of procreation. However, when you have an individual setting government policies in the name of good, such individual rights become virtual blasphemy in the eyes of the faithful.

Source: Salon