Iran's Billboard Guide to Family Planning Teaches 'the More, the Merrier'

About 47 years ago, the motto "Fewer children, better life" penetrated deep into Iranians' homes and affected reproduction norms in the quest for a more comfortable lifestyle. The slogan was a major effort by the Pahlavi administration to curb population growth, a campaign to persuade families to have fewer children.

Last year, Iran's supreme leader presented an extremely different and updated approach to people's private lives, encouraging them to produce more children and adding that the Iranian population should move toward at least 150 million people (almost double that of today).

Over the past year, the government and non-government organizations have attempted to spread Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's words discouraging people from using contraception.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/12/iran-billboards-samimi.html#ixzz2ok80tVC5

Published on AlMonitor's Iran Pulse on Friday, December 27th, 2013

Mehrnaz Samimi is an Iranian-American journalist. On Twitter: @mehrnazsamimi