Sexual Relations in Iran: Pleasure Seeking or Childbearing?

A year has passed since the approval of the Comprehensive Population and Family Plan. This plan set a 'suitable age' for marriage at 20 to 25 for men and 18 to 22 for women, aiming to increase population and fertility growth in Iran. However, there has been no news about the implementation of this plan, but last week the Minister of Health announced that the population growth rate has increased from 1.3% to 1.4% this year, a growth of one-tenth of a percent from last year. Even before the approval of this plan, efforts to increase birth rates in Iran had been underway. For instance, health houses that previously provided free contraceptives and sexual health education have ceased operations, and there have been reports about the prohibition of selling contraceptives and condoms in pharmacies. Raha Bahraini, an Iran expert at Amnesty International, commented on the plan's view of birth control, stating: 'These plans explicitly threaten women's rights to sexual and reproductive health. The first plan declares the permanent sterilization of women as illegal and prohibits the provision of information on contraceptive methods. This plan could have very concerning consequences. When we consider the prohibition alongside the cut in family planning budgets in Iran, it means millions of women and girls in Iran will have neither access to the pills and services that the family planning program provided nor to sterilization procedures. This puts millions of women and girls in an inhumane situation where they must choose between frequent and exhausting unwanted pregnancies or resorting to illegal and dangerous abortions, suffering significant harm to their mental and physical health.' Now, a year after the approval of the Comprehensive Population and Family Plan, 120 gynecologists wrote a letter to the Minister of Health warning about 350,000 abortions occurring in Iran. In this letter, these doctors neither called for the resumption of education for couples nor considered the provision of contraceptive services necessary. They only demanded stricter measures against illegal abortions in Iran. One day after the publication of this letter, the Ministry of Health denied the 350,000 abortion figure and emphasized the accuracy of the annual statistic of 200,000 to 250,000 abortions, a figure announced in 2014 by the Director General of Family Health and Population at the Ministry of Health. This is not the first time that state officials have denied statistics related to social issues. Sociologist Hossein Ghazian, residing in the U.S., explains the repeated denial of statistics by officials: 'They deny the statistics because it may create the impression that these children were born outside of legitimate relationships, thus revealing the extent of illicit relationships in society, which contradicts the image the Islamic Republic tries to project of society as an Islamic one. As I have said many times, if it becomes clear that society is not as Islamic as the rulers claim, their own legitimacy is questioned as to why the Islamic should govern the people. The second issue could be that such statistics actually show that besides the issue of pregnancies outside of legitimate relationships, there is also the matter of not wanting children, which does not align with the leadership's desire to increase the population. Both of these may be seen as threats to existing policies in the country, and for this reason, the statistics are not transparent.' 'Contraceptives hinder sexual pleasure.' We go to Tehran to hear from Atiyeh, a 30-year-old woman discussing the difficulties Iranian women face in preventing pregnancy. Ms. Atiyeh, where do Iranian women obtain contraceptives? Can you easily buy them at your local pharmacy? Yes. In a city like Tehran, every pharmacy you visit has various types of condoms, foreign brands displayed prominently, and you can choose from a variety of prices. There are various pills, both produced by Iranian factories and foreign pills available in Iran, which are more expensive. Ms. Atiyeh, considering your personal experience and the women you know, why do Iranian women still have high abortion rates despite the apparent accessibility of contraceptives in large cities? There are various reasons. For example, I myself am not willing to use contraceptive pills, except for emergency pills for special situations. The reason is that they are hormonal and ultimately harmful to the body. In a mutual relationship, the woman has to take pills all month, disrupting her hormonal balance and causing harm, while the man has no involvement. I have friends who took pills and experienced severe nausea or insomnia. For this reason, I think the issue of pills is clear. But on the other hand, many women believe that their partner, meaning the man, is unwilling to use condoms. I think this belief is quite prevalent, and condoms have not been integrated into our sexual culture as they should be. People use condoms in their first relationships because they fear diseases. But as soon as they feel secure, they stop using them. After that, they say they trust each other. Ms. Atiyeh, why do you think that despite Iranian women's apparent awareness of their bodies and desires in a sexual relationship, they still choose abortion as a solution? Is access to abortion in Iran that easy? I can't say why they choose it. But I must say that access to it is not easy, but it is not hard either. For a low-risk abortion, we have many women's clinics where doctors and facilities are available, but the cost of abortion there is high. However, married women find it difficult to visit these clinics because many married women who have abortions do so secretly from their husbands, and if they visit these clinics, they contact their spouses. In fact, those who are married face more problems when it comes to abortion than those who are not. Almost all Iranian women know that there are places where they can buy injections that are extremely dangerous but cheaper than other abortion methods. One of my extremely terrifying experiences was when one of my friends had problems after an injection and called me. I went to her house to take care of her and saw firsthand how horrifying the process was, from bleeding to the terrible pains she endured. But in any case, every girl can access these injections through one or two intermediaries. There are also many illegal and unsafe places available. Sex for pleasure, not procreation. I ask Hossein Ghazian how it is that, according to Atiyeh, groups of Iranian women, despite being aware of contraceptive methods and having access to resources, refuse to use contraceptives for various reasons, including pleasure-seeking or equality in sexual relationships. Hossein Ghazian responds that two issues are at play: one is the risks of the future and the benefits of the present. This means we live in a classical sex era, that is, visual sex. In this era, sexual pleasure is separate from the issue of procreation. You know that in the past, sex was associated with procreation. People had sexual relations to reproduce. But nowadays, many times they do it for pleasure, and this pleasure is sometimes unplanned. Additionally, they want to maximize their pleasure. All of this requires them to reduce the use of preventive methods that diminish pleasure and also to use less of those anxiety-inducing measures that reduce their enjoyment; because these pleasures are present, but those risks, such as having children, relate to the future and are a kind of probability. In such logic, it seems that the present pleasure outweighs the future risk, and people submit to a situation that may surprise them later.