15 March 2015

Baby-making machines

.... Iran has proposed a raft of draconian new laws that critics fear would force women to stay at home and turn them into “baby-making machines”.

The laws, part of a broader drive to curb women’s rights, would restrict birth control and access to jobs for those without children after a call by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, to boost the population from 77m to 150m within 50 years.

The measures would outlaw vasectomies and female sterilisation, ban the recruitment of single teachers and make it impossible for childless lawyers to practise family law. Employers would be required to give precedence to men and women with children.

Amnesty International has attacked the plans as an attempt to turn women into “baby-making machines”. [Mick Hartley] Read more