Awkward fertility advert highlights Iran's drive to boost population

An ad displayed in Tehran’s metro cars that many perceived as a bizarre attempt to criticize birth control has stirred controversy over Iran's official measures to combat shrinking population growth.

“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.