Changes in Family, Fertility Behavior and Attitudes in Iran

Abstract

The Islamic Republic of Iran has experienced a phenomenal fertility decline in recent years. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has declined from around 7.0 births per woman in 1979 at the time of the Revolution to around 2.1 in 2000. The fertility decline has been pervasive being observed in all provinces and rural and urban areas of Iran. The decline commenced in the mid-1980s, a few years before the revival of an official family planning program in 1989. Although, the family planning program evidently contributed to an acceleration of the decline from the late 1980s, the program itself can be considered to be a response to the demand for smaller family size observed by the mid-1980s. This gives rise to a consideration of how family relationships and values have changed in Iran over the last two decades? How have successive cohorts of Iranian women perceived marriage and family? How have family transformations changed the formation of marriage, marital timing, spouse choice, living arrangements and the number and spacing of children? In other words, how have changes of attitudes affected fertility behaviors in Iran? Drawing on a recently conducted survey, the Iran Fertility Transition Survey (IFTS), we argue that the Iranian fertility decline has been due to social change at both the macro (societal) and micro (family/individual) levels. The paper will first examine fertility levels and trends in Iran as a whole. We then focus on the four selected provinces of Gilan, Sistan & Baluchistan, West Azarbaijan, and Yazd covered in the IFTS considering both fertility trends and changes in family, fertility behavior and attitudes of married women in Iran.