Iran International
Nearly all members of Iran’s parliamentary presidium were re-elected on Tuesday with no real competition or surprise, in an uneventful session that mirrored the widespread apathy outside.
Despite weeks of speculation that the ultraconservative Paydari Party would mount a serious challenge to Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, no meaningful competition materialized.
Even Iran’s tightly controlled state media struggled to hide the stagnation.
“The political atmosphere in Iran has never been as banal as it is today,” the conservative daily Farhikhtegan wrote in its editorial on Tuesday. “Public trust in both politics and politicians is at its lowest point.”
During the session, lawmakers barely addressed the parliament’s performance. Instead, they praised Ghalibaf’s military service during the Iran-Iraq War, deflecting attention from governance failures.
Farhikhtegan warned that many lawmakers appear unwilling or unable to manage even basic parliamentary affairs—raising concerns about the legislature’s capacity to provide oversight or hold the cabinet accountable.It also alleged that some figures outside parliament had attempted to influence the internal vote.
Ghalibaf, a former Revolutionary Guards commander, won comfortably after one of his two rivals, Ahmad Ghavami, withdrew just before the vote. The only remaining contender, Ahmad Rastineh, posed little threat.
Rastineh had claimed he was running to end what he called Ghalibaf’s undemocratic control of the legislature. However, his interventions appear to have focused more on silencing radical voices than asserting a distinct policy direction.
Legislative paralysis
In the past year, the parliament (or Majles) advanced only two major initiatives: one to enforce compulsory hijab and another to restrict social media.
The former was blocked by President Massoud Pezeshkian and the Supreme National Security Council, who feared backlash from Iran’s politically active women.
The latter also met resistance from the public and the executive. Under pressure from youth in particular, Pezeshkian overturned a ban on WhatsApp and is reportedly working to lift other platform restrictions.
Yet the parliament’s most glaring failure remains economic reform. Lawmakers have made little progress in combating corruption, reducing inequality, or improving living standards.
Some political commentators—including prominent reform advocate Abbas Abdi and former vice president and presidential candidate Mostafa Hashemi Taba—argue that legislative efforts alone cannot solve Iran’s economic crisis.
The Majles, they assert, has lost much of its relevance, and only systemic reform—especially the redistribution of financial resources—can address the country’s deeply rooted structural challenges.
“The nurse who healed my mother’s wounds, you are a great lady,” read the caption over an image that many observers at first interpreted as a condom crinkled over a phallic shape.
Below was written: “The nurse who was never born” and “Giving an opportunity to future heroes to be born.”
Social media posts suggested the ad was understood as an anti-condom message promoted by the hardline-dominated municthey have
“Looks like they have seriously used an image of a broken condom in the metro to campaign for childbirth. Since when have they become so open-minded,” user @nah__r asked on X.
“This ad is dangerously misleading! Condom use is not just for preventing pregnancy, it plays a much more vital role in maintaining sexual health and preventing sexually transmitted diseases,” London-based Iranian hemato-oncologist Dr. Shahram Kordasti weighed in in a post on X.
“Incomplete information is harmful and a sign of the utter irresponsibility of its publishers.”
Design misfire
But the apparent message was due to a misfire in design. Some social media users later clarified that the graphic was intended to show a hospital bed with a bedsheet—not a condom.
The ad, other images bore out, was part of a broader campaign to warn about a future shortage of critical workforce—such as firefighters, emergency responders, and border guards—if Iran’s birth rate continues to fall.
Other versions showed the same shape variously pocked with bullet holes, burnt and frozen, praising the heroism of 'unborn' border patrols, firefighters and rescue workers.
“I realized that that (the opaque covering) was supposed to represent hospital sheets, not condoms after I investigated the ad,” @adameaval posted on X, blaming the campaign’s designers for the confusion.
Towards a pro-birth policy
Iran’s first condom factory was launched in 1987 by the Ministry of Health, part of a wider effort to curb explosive population growth that had exceeded five percent in the early 1980s.
In the 1990s, Iran’s family planning program was considered among the most effective globally, providing free contraceptives through public health services and promoting smaller families.
But over the past decade, authorities have reversed that approach in response to a steep drop in birth rates. According to the latest official statistics, the population growth rate is now just 0.7 percent.
In 2022, the Health Ministry banned free distribution of contraceptives and required a prescription for purchases. Yet demand continues, and illegally imported condoms and contraceptives are still available—sold discreetly through online shops and some pharmacies.
At the same time, abortion crackdowns have intensified. Abortions in Iran are only allowed during the first four months of pregnancy and only in cases of severe fetal abnormalities or when the mother’s life is at risk. Screening kits for congenital anomalies that may encourage abortions have also been banned.
Babies with benefits
The government is now offering financial and other incentives to encourage childbearing, including bonuses for childbirth, free land and extended maternity leave.
In a bid to support infertile couples, the government recently expanded insurance coverage. On April 27, Iran’s Health Insurance Organization announced it would cover 90% of costs for IVF and ICSI in public hospitals, and 70% in private ones.
Speaking at a National Population Day event on May 19, Mohammad-Jafar Ghaempanah, executive deputy to President Masoud Pezeshkian, warned that the recent 7.4 percent drop in births compared to the previous year is a “serious alarm.”
He added that reversing the trend would require “economic stability, improved livelihoods, and job security.”
However, Iran’s struggling economy complicates these ambitions. The Misery Index—defined as the combined rate of unemployment and inflation—has jumped from 19.3 percent in 2016 to 40.3 percent in 2024, with inflation hovering above 32.5 percent for years.
“A government that hasn’t been able to provide welfare or at least the minimum of it for its current population is not well-positioned ethically to tell its people to have more children,” sociologist Saeed Payvandi told Iran International TV from Paris.