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Another question that comes up constantly in talking about the Middle East and Islam is the state of women's rights. Take the extreme example of Saudi Arabia: Saudi women are not permitted to drive. As far as I know, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that says that it is un-Islamic for a woman to drive a car. Although the Iranian constitution initially excluded women from serving as judges, a few years after the revolution women were permitted to participate as judges in civil, not criminal, cases. In Iranian divorce cases, women are now permitted to sue for compensation for the household work they performed during the marriage. Many American women would probably approve of that rather unique set of circumstances. The justification for this ruling certainly does not stem from anything written in the Qur'an. Its foundation has more to do with a group of activist women in the majlis having pushed very hard for women's rights. Westerners are often also interested in the question of birth control. Immediately after the 1979 revolution, the Iranian clerical establishment and the new revolutionary elite determined that birth control was un-Islamic. The legal use of birth control was viewed as a leftover from the shah's un-Islamic days. It was quickly abolished. Once it was outlawed, Iran faced a huge population explosion. Iranians began to have kids at an incredible rate. The population was soon growing at a pace of about 4 percent a year. At that rate, the population would double approximately every 15 years, putting an immense strain on the nation's resources. After about five years, Iran's leadership took another look at birth control, deciding that it wasn't so un-Islamic after all. By 1986 the nation was facing a tidal wave of young people. The leaders worried about where to find a place for these children in schools, how to provide them with social services, and ultimately how to create jobs for them—the practical problems that accompany uncontrolled population growth. Faced with these obstacles, the leaders decided to change their mind and permit birth control.
Today Iran is among half a dozen states with the most effective birth-control methods in the world. Unlike the Chinese, the Iranian leadership does not force people to restrict their families. But billboards all around Tehran and Iran declare that two children are enough, and government benefits have been removed for third children. The Iranians have been very successful with this effort. Population growth has slowed from 4 percent to, debatably, around 2 to 2.3 percent a year. While the population of Iran is still growing relatively quickly, the current pace is much more manageable. But is birth control Islamic? That question wasn't really the issue. Population growth had become a national crisis. Faced with the severe practical problem of how to provide the necessary services for their people, Islam suddenly took a backseat.
In fact, many Islamic countries have called for the use of birth control. It is not an unusual policy in the Islamic world. Egypt and many other countries have even justified the use of birth control in terms of Islam. Iran won a UNECSO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) award last year for having one of the most effective birth-control programs in the world. Interestingly, one of the reasons Iran's effort has been so successful is that the nation is Islamic. Religion often represents the greatest obstacle in convincing people to pay attention to birth control. While a government may declare its approval for birth control, that nation's religious leaders may disagree—preaching their opposition to the neighborhood communities. Because Iran is a theocratic state, ruled in the name of Islam, most of the nation's clerics supported the government's program. They helped Iran to successfully promote the effort on a community and an individual level. | |||||||
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