Iran
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
M. takes great pride in being pregnant with her first child. She hasn’t suffered from infertility problems while her sister had been trying for a long time to have children, before she could get pregnant. M. knows through her sister’s experience the psychological and social pressure that a childless woman is forced to live in Iran. Iran’s population increased dramatically during the latter half of the 20th century, however, recently Iran’s birth rate has significantly declined, while it is increased social pressure on childless women.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
Medical documents related to fertility treatment that Sarah (35 years old) underwent to have a child.She was subjected to a hormonal cure without getting pregnant and she decided to undergo IVF treatment (in vitro fertilization), a process by which an egg is fertilized by sperm outside the body. She says that period was extremely stressful. She hadn’t informed anybody about the cures of fertility, she said: I was afraid that my mother in law convinced my husband to divorce, in Iran many husband divorced if their wives cannot have children. She got pregnant with twins after about six months of starting IVF treatment.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
Umbilical cord.
The decision to have a child is a private act, but in Iran it is an intimate contract
sanctioned by social, cultural, legal, and religious doctrines. The political and religious wills of the country that aim to increase demographic growth are discriminatory towards women who are not able to adapt to the needs of their own country. The message that would pass in the society is curbing women’s advances in the country and seek to confine them to the roles of mothers and wives.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
Social worker in the Royan Institute of Tehran, a research institute for Reproductive Biomedicine and infertility treatments.
She has been working as a social worker for about nine years and she claims that infertility condition is lived by women as a real stigma. Women are often isolated from parents and abandoned by their husband. She said that it isn’t considered the adoption of a child because of Iranian men. According to them it is important that there is a genetic continuity and it is very important for men to show that his wife is pregnant, as proof of their masculinity.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
Clothes of two twin children born through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The large majority of childless couples are residents of developing countries as Iran.
According to the WHO there is a silent population of more than 180 million couples facing the consequences of infertility day by day ( Rutstein and Iqbal, 2004). The consequences of involuntary childlessness are much more dramatic in developing countries than to Western societies, particularly for women. Negative psychosocial consequences are often severe and childless women are frequently stigmatized, isolated, ostracized, disinherited and neglected by the entire family and even by the local community.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
S. is holding in her hands a photograph of her children.
She had two children through in vitro fertilization. She said that she was depressed during treatment and she was afraid that her husband could abandon her. She said that according to Iranian society children are the priorities. She said that the cures were very expensive (4 thousand euros only to buy the medicines) in addition to being very painful both at the emotional and physical level.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
Tea with honey, turmeric seeds and dried dates are some of the natural remedies against sterility.
These remedies are still very used in Iran. The mother-in-law usually offers these foods to the daughter-in-law to help her to get pregnant and to remind her the importance of a pregnancy for the whole family.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
K. wants a child for more than a year, but because of a gynecological problem she doesn’t produce enough eggs. She has undergone a fertility treatment that compels her to different hormone injections on the belly. She is very ashamed of not being able to have children and tearfully she said that her family and her husband’s family don’t know anything about her infertility.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
S. is a film director as her husband.
“I love my husband and my life. I like it even though I can’t have children. It is difficult for me to be accepted by the Iranian society”, she said. They lived the first years of marriage in Australia with S. family. She discovered she had a uterine fibroid when she decided to have a child. She said “I wanted a son, but it had grown up a fibroid, a illness.” After surgery, the doctor told her that it was the last period to be able to have a child. At that time, her husband told her he didn’t want sons so she had to choose whether to divorce to become a mother or to stay married and give up on her maternity.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
Condoms.
In 2015 Iran sought to reverse laws on family planning by outlawing voluntary sterilization and restricting access to contraceptives.
One law is named the ” Bill to Increase Fertility Rates and Prevent Population Decline (Bill 446).” It wants to block access to information about contraception and It is outlaw voluntary sterilization.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
H. she got married when she was 17 years old. After A year and half of marriage her husband accused her of being ill and he wouldn’t pay for her cares. He threatened her to ask to divorce if she hadn’t been pregnant. Her parents helped her economically. She said” the only thing I cared about was to get pregnant and I had two sons.
I decided to resume studying and I started working. My husband accused me of not being a good mother and when I refused to leave my job he asked for divorce. The children are entrusted to the father; she can spend time with her sons every fifteen days if her husband agrees.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
K. hasn’t had children, she has undergone two treatments of in vitro insemination. she
remained pregnant After the second IVF treatment, but she had a miscarriage. She
decided not to have sons and she said “I think it is fair that women do everything to
have children, provided that it is a free choice. K. is originally from the north of Iran where women are economically independent and therefore are less prone to social pressure related to the role of mother.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
Child dress.
M. bought this dress for her daughter who is carrying in her womb. She is happy to have a little girl, but she knows that for Iranian society is very important that a family has at least one male child.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
K. is a midwife. She wants to be a mother more than anything. She said crying that she felt guilty towards her husband. From about 20 months she underwent treatment for infertility. She said ” if I am not pregnant I will ask the help of a surrogate mother”.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
N. is a gynecologist. She works daily with women who suffer from infertility issues.
She said the most patients who suffer from this problem are depressed. Treatments for infertility like heavy doses of hormones create discomforts both physical and psychological, according to N.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
Pregnancy test.
The Iranian government is encouraging young couples in the country to have more
children in order to cope with the kind of aging demographics that currently plague Europe and Japan. Last year, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the elimination of a government population control program. There is a strong correlation between what the Islamic clergy in Iran approves of and the strategic
long term goals of the government in regards to societal expectations of men and women, population growth and their international image to both the West and other Shia populations in the Greater Middle East.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
R. got pregnant five years ago. She wasn’t married and having a baby outside of
marriage is a serious social mark. She decided to have an abortion, but in Iran it is illegal. She said that it is difficult to have an illegal abortion in Iran, the doctors treated her as a murderer and tried to intimidate her. The abortion was done in a private clinic. Her clinic folder was altered and an abortion was prescribed for health reasons. “I am grateful that I found a doctor willing to help me” she said with tears in her eyes.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
IRAN, Tehran. 2016
Sculpture of a fetus.
According to a report of Global Journal of Health Science (GJHS) more than 20% of
Iranian couples cannot conceive, compared with the global rate of between 8% and 12%. More broadly, infertility rates in the Middle East are highly compared with global averages. Marcia Inhorn, a medical anthropologist at Yale University who specializes in assisted reproduction in the region, points to the high rate of marriages between cousins in the Middle East, especially first cousins, as a leading cause.
© Laura Aggio Caldon
