ABSTRACT
International stereotypes tend to portray Iran as a conservative Muslim society resistant to many aspects of social change. Recent studies have shown, however, that the reality is profoundly different. Iran has experienced astonishing social, demographic, and cultural changes over the last two decades. Rising literacy and levels of education (particularly for women), access to health, electricity, telephone, and mass media in every corner of Iran along with urbanization are among the known areas that have changed substantially in post-revolutionary Iran. These changes have also brought about a transformation of ideas leading to social change in many aspects of family life. For example, Iran has experienced a phenomenal fertility decline in recent years. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) decreased from around 7.0 children per woman of reproductive age in 1980 to around 2.2 in 2000. Fertility decline has been pervasive, being observed in all provinces as well as rural and urban areas (Abbasi-Shavazi 2001a). The fertility decline in Iran clearly accelerated with the re-commencement of the government family planning program in 1989 (Aghajanian and Mehryar 1999; Mehryar et al. 1998; Mehryar et al. 2001). However, studies have shown (Ladier-Fouladi 1996; Abbasi-Shavazi 2000, 2001a; 2001b; 2002a, 2002b; Abbasi-Shavazi and McDonald 2006) that the onset of decline from 1986 occurred somewhat independently from the official family planning program. Thus, a question has risen as to whether other factors such as social change and transformation of attitudes toward family and fertility paved the way for the phenomenal fertility decline in Iran in recent years.
