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Iran

Iran, known as Persia until 1935, is the 18th largest country in the world and has a population of over 70 million. Iran has experienced a series of conflicts, most recently the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which has had effects on the lives of women and mothers within the country. After the revolution, early marriage and family formation were promoted, resulting in an increase in the fertility rate. The average number of children per woman (total fertility rate) in Iran was 6.3 in 1990. Between 1979 and 2005, however, the fertility rate decreased from about 7 to 1.8 children born per woman.

Maternity Leave and Reproductive Policy

Female employees are entitled to 90 days of maternity leave. A reproductive health program was introduced in 1988, and has reduced infant, child, and maternal mortality rates. There has been a decline in the rates of infant mortality (45 to 26 deaths per 1,000 live births), and maternal mortality (91 to 40 deaths) between 1988 and 2000.

Abortion is forbidden except when the life of the woman is in danger, and is considered a crime by the Islamic penal code introduced after the 1979 revolution. In recent years, lobbying successes have led to abortion being allowed in the first four months if the fetus is mentally or physically handicapped. A woman made pregnant as the result of rape has no right under this law to obtain an abortion. The penalty for an illegally obtained abortion can be up to 10 years of imprisonment for the provider and for the woman.

Lone Parents and Poor Families

According to official Iranian statistics, 10 percent of the country's households have female providers, but the authorities only count widows and divorced women. Fifty percent of women become single parents due to being widowed and 18 percent due to divorce. One in five marriages in Iran end in divorce, and historically, the mother was only allowed to have custody of girls under the age of 7 and boys under the age of 2. After this age, the children were supposed to be transferred to the father or father's family. However, there is now a general acceptance that the mother should have care of the children after divorce.

In Iran, only families on very low incomes receive any welfare assistance, and there is neither universal family allowance, nor any housing benefit or maternity benefit. Welfare programs for the needy are managed by more than 30 individual public agencies and semi-state organizations as well as several private, nongovernmental organizations.

Restrictions on Girls and Mothers

Mothers are traditionally revered in Islam, and in Islamic societies women are expected to have children and draw prestige from having sons. However, the total fertility rate in Iran has fallen rapidly in recent years (from seven children per woman in 1986 to two per woman in 2000), a drop accounted primarily by contraceptive use (61 percent), which allows women to space their children more widely. Women were much less likely than men to be employed: in 2006, only 40 percent of women age 15 and older were in the labor force, versus 74.4 percent of men of comparable age. Women are subject to many social controls regarding their sexual behavior, but books such as Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi make it clear that Iranian women are knowledgeable and assertive about their sexuality. Girls are subject to many restrictions, including the requirement to cover themselves in public, and may be married as young as age 13.

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