Lessons from Iran on condoms, fertility control and HIV prevention

[Guest guest]

Dear forum members:

Just wanted to share the link to an article on BBC on how condoms have

helped an Islamic country like Iran in checking birth rates.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1949000/1949068.stm

For all of us working on HIV prevention, this is an important lesson to

learn that if a country like Iran can promote condoms as a family planning

method and in the process protect against STI, then there is no reason why

our country with a family planning program of 50 years cannot promote

condoms as a method that would dually protect against both unwanted

pregnancies and STI/HIV. Perhaps it is time that our AIDS control programs

and policies and family planning programs and policies reconcile goals and

strategies to make condom promotion a central piece of both fertility

reduction and STI/HIV reduction goals.

It is not just accident or culture that despite a 50 year old family planning

program, condom use in our country remains a dismal 3.1% (NFHS 1998-99) versus

female sterilization (34%). It is time that we in the HIV prevention field

revisit and rethink our national population policies and strategies in light of

the HIV epidemic. I say this in light of a recent report by the National

Commission on Population which has strongly encouraged the reinstating of

the 2-child policy with incentives and disincentives (reported in the

latest outlook magazine article).

For anyone who is familiar with the population debates and history in our

country the practical import of such a population policy in the last 50 years

has been an emphasis (often coercively) on sterilization at the expense of all

other spacing methods including condoms.

Condom programming and promotion for STI and HIV prevention will only work

in our country if one of the world's largest family planning programs with

its large state machinery (both in terms of infrastructure and manpower)

will do its share in pro-actively promoting condoms as a dual protection

method. And perhaps along the way we can learn a few lessons from a

country like Iran.

Avni

Avni Amin, Ph.D.

Senior Program Associate

Center for Health and Gender Equity

6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 910

Takoma Park, MD 20912

Tel: 301-270-1182

Fax: 301-270-2052

Website: www.genderhealth.org

E-mail: <aamin@...>

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