Arrest of Meymanat Hosseini, Demography Professor in Case of Population Control Activists

Following reports about the arrest of several activists in the field of demography, a lawyer announced that Meymanat Hosseini Chavoshi, a demography professor and researcher at the Australian National University, has recently been arrested. Mahmoud Behzadi, the lawyer, stated on Sunday, December 2, in an interview with the IRNA news agency that she does not have access to a lawyer. According to Behzadi, under the new procedure, individuals arrested on 'security' charges must choose a lawyer from a list of 'trusted' lawyers approved by the judiciary at the time of their arrest, and Ms. Hosseini has 'not yet chosen a lawyer from among these individuals.' The Kayhan newspaper also reported on Saturday that 'M.H., a dual-national demographer,' has been arrested. Nasrollah Pejmanfar, a conservative member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, defended the arrest of several activists in the 'population control' field, claiming that these individuals manipulated population policies and statistics and presented them to 'top figures of the regime.' Meymanat Hosseini Chavoshi is an Iranian demographer and researcher at the Public Policy Institute of the Australian National University. In 2010, her book titled 'Fertility Transitions in Iran' (co-authored with Peter McDonald and Mohammad Jalaei Abasi Shavazi) was announced as the winner of the Book of the Year Award of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Fars news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported on Tuesday, December 6, that several individuals in the 'population control' field had been arrested by one of the 'security agencies' and labeled them as 'infiltrators.' Some social media users have compared the arrest of these individuals to the arrest of environmental activists. Last week, Hesamoddin Ashna, an advisor to the Iranian president, tweeted sarcastically, 'Let them take the credit for the security of demography; for you, the environmental field is enough for now.' The population control policy in Iran was promoted during Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's presidency with slogans like 'Two children are enough' and 'Better life, fewer children,' and it was even encouraged by clerics. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, however, opposed this policy during his presidency, calling it a means of 'the extinction of the Iranian nation.' Subsequently, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic in 2013 called his previous stance on population control a mistake and issued a decree titled 'General Population Policies' to the three branches of government. Following this, the Iranian parliament approved restrictions to prevent pregnancy.