While according to data released by the Iran Statistics Organization and the Central Bank, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration has been unable to curb inflation or unemployment, Ahmadinejad himself called on the nation for a more rapid population growth during a nationally televised interview by offering to hand out one million Tomans in government assistance to families who give birth to a child after 2010.

 “I am opposing to the nation that two children are enough and I have a scientific explanation for that.  Today we see that the average number of children per family is below two, and this is a wrong policy that Westerners have adopted.  They are paying a heavy price now to preserve their culture and identity.  So why must we follow in their path,” he said in the interview.

Announcing that the “country can sustain 150 million people,” the president stepped into the territory of Shi’ite clerics, adding, “Some think that we provide people’s sustenance, but that is very wrong.  I am surprised that the clerics are silent about this issue.  What is this life that they have planned out for us?  Did Westerners reach happiness with the population control plans so that we should follow their models?”

Opponents’ Reactions

Prominent political figures and lawmakers reacted to Ahmadinejad’s remarks and dismissed them as politically and economically unwise.  

The chairman of the Majlis health and wellness committee condemned Ahmadinejad’s Tuesday night remarks, saying, “When unemployment is rampant and we lack the infrastructure to provide the existing population with a proper livelihood, speaking about higher population growth is against reason.”  

Similarly, the previous reformist administration’s health minister and current member of the minority faction in the Majlis said, “When we have so many unemployed youth in our country and so many problems in health and education, how can we think about higher population growth?  The government should solve the problems of our nation’s unemployed, which comprise a high percentage of the population, and then care about a 100 million population.”  

Ahmadinejad Not Boss of Clerics

Another member of the minority reformist faction in the Majlis, Ghodratollah Alikhani, said, “His opinion cannot guide anyone.  Islam has left families free to have as many children as they wish.  The issues that he brings up about Islam are not new.”  

Alikhani, who also serves in the clerics caucus in the Majlis, condemned Ahmadinejad’s remarks about the clerics, noting, “Mr. Ahmadinejad is not the boss of clerics, and doesn’t have the right to tell clerics what to do on issues of this nature because he is not a Muslim scholar either.”

One the other hand, Mohammad Taghi Rahbar, who is also a member of the clerics caucus in the Majlis, said, “The principle of enlarging the population of Muslims is a desirable principle because there is a saying from the prophet in which he calls for population growth among the Muslims.”