Khamenei Outlines Family Policies: Emphasis on 'Women's Housekeeping Role' and 'Rejection of Singleness'

The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic has issued 'General Family Policies' urging officials to simultaneously promote a culture of 'disdain' for divorce and launch a nationwide campaign against singleness, encouraging female heads of households to remarry. According to one of the clauses in this document, marriage, motherhood, and housekeeping are the only 'roles and missions' assigned to women, while the 'economic' role is entirely designated for men. On Saturday, September 4, the website of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reported that he communicated these policies to the heads of the three branches of government and the head of the Expediency Discernment Council after their approval by this council. The document indicates that Khamenei has defined the main functions of family in Iran based on an 'Islamic model', thereby reducing women's primary roles in society to traditional functions. He explicitly requested that the country's leaders support the 'dignity and honor of marriage, motherhood, and housekeeping for women and the roles of fatherhood and economic responsibility for men'. These policies do not consider any economic role or social participation for women, assigning these roles solely to men. He also called for 'encouragement and facilitation' of marriage for female heads of households and legal, economic, and cultural support for them. Historically, the Islamic Republic has consistently sought to confine women's activities to the home and traditional roles of wife and mother, showing little acceptance of female leadership in families and the singleness of women. According to reports, the Supreme Leader has called for the 'creation of a nationwide movement to promote and facilitate successful and easy marriages for all girls and boys and... the rejection of singleness in society'. He ordered that this should be accomplished 'through the establishment of executive policies and supportive laws and regulations, cultural promotion, and valuing the formation of families based on divine tradition'. Another section of the 'family' policies, which have been formulated in response to the significant increase in divorce rates in Iran, is dedicated to 'preventing social harms and factors undermining the family institution, especially the issue of divorce'. The Supreme Leader has asked officials to 'continuously identify the factors of divorce and family breakdown and promote a culture of disdain for divorce' to 'compensate for the resulting damages'. The rising divorce rates in Iran, which sociologists attribute primarily to the increased awareness and education levels of women and their social participation, have raised concerns among the officials of the Islamic Republic. They generally view divorce not as a 'social phenomenon' but as a 'social harm', identifying the changing lifestyle of the Iranian people and the tendency towards a Western lifestyle as the main factors for its increase in the country. Meanwhile, despite new plans and efforts to promote a lifestyle based on Islamic principles in Iran, the divorce statistics have not only not decreased but have increased, leading to a recent halt in the publication of divorce statistics in the country. 'Effective confrontation with the soft war of enemies aimed at undermining and distorting family relations' is another emphasis of the Supreme Leader in the general family policies. He has instructed the leaders of the branches of government and the head of the Expediency Discernment Council to promote the Islamic family model and 'encourage an Islamic-Iranian lifestyle' through 'prohibiting the dissemination of programs that disrupt family values', 'combating elitism and materialism, and manifestations of Western culture', and 'creating a healthy environment and respecting Islamic relations between men and women in society'. Khamenei has also called for 'the establishment of necessary mechanisms to enhance the overall health of families, especially reproductive health and increasing childbirth'. In recent years, the Supreme Leader has repeatedly criticized population control policies in Iran and called for an increase in childbirth. On October 11, 2012, he stated in a gathering of people in the city of Bojnord: 'One of the mistakes we made was that population control should have been stopped since the mid-1990s. The country's officials made a mistake in this regard, and I am also complicit. May God and history forgive us for this.' The population control policy in Iran after the revolution was initiated with the slogans 'two children are enough' and 'better life, fewer children' following the end of the Iran-Iraq war, and well-known clerics also supported it. However, with the Supreme Leader's change of opinion regarding this policy, responsible institutions and agencies have also been mandated to encourage families, especially women, to have more children and provide facilities in this regard. Nevertheless, conservatives believe that the government of Hassan Rouhani is not cooperating adequately in this area. Recently, Fereshteh Rouhafza, the deputy of the Cultural and Social Council of Women, condemned the Ministry of Health, stating that 'the argument that the poor should not have children is fascistic' and 'the Ministry of Health is still obstructing the increase of the country's population in various ways.' According to Ms. Rouhafza, some in the country are seeking to 'reduce the number of Hezbollah and Basij children who are currently standing against the West as defenders of the shrine'.