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Breed and we'll beat West, says Ahmadinejad
IRAN'S President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called for a baby boom to almost double the country's population to 120 million and enable it to "triumph" over the West.Mr Ahmadinejad told MPs he wanted to scrap birth control policies that discourage Iranian couples from having more than two children. Women should work less and devote more time to their "main mission" of raising children, he said. His comments amounted to an attack on official policies sanctioned by senior Islamic clerics aimed at limiting Iran's population, now 70 million. The Government backs birth control measures including female sterilisation, vasectomies and mandatory family planning classes for newlyweds. Iran also has a state-owned condom factory. "I am against saying two children are enough," Mr Ahmadinejad said. "Our country has a lot of capacity. It has the capacity for many children to grow in it. It even has the capacity for 120 million people. "Westerners have got problems. Because their population growth is negative they are worried and fear that if our population increases, we will triumph over them." Critics said Mr Ahmadinejad's call was ill-judged at a time when Iran is struggling with surging inflation and rising unemployment, unofficially about 25 per cent. Mr Ahmadinejad's call is similar to one by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, after the 1979 Islamic revolution. The policy led to a population explosion but was reversed because of the strain on the economy, and population growth dropped from an all-time high of 3.2 per cent in 1986 to about 1.2 per cent, similar to Australia. Posted by: tipper 2006-10-24 |
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