286 Chapter Thirteen
‘I do not believe in the slogan ‘Two Children Is Enough’. This is a wrong
slogan that westerners chose and now are paying a huge amount to preserve
their culture and identity.’In addition to highlighting the negative consequences of population
restriction in the West, as is interpreted from Ahmadinejad’s remark, he
accuses family planning advocates of ignoring religious guidelines:
(10) kesani k bahshaye control e jamiat va shoar e do bache kafist ra matrah
mikonand dar mahdudeye donyaye madi fekr karde va tasmim migirand.
Kesani ke darbareye control e jamiat sokhan miguyand khod ra jaye khoda
neshandeand, dar hali ke khodavand mifarmayad agar faghr o tangdasti ham
darid ezdevaj konid (www.khabaronline.ir 27/07/2010).
Those who support population control and the slogan ‘Two Children Is
Enough’ are limited in thinking and deciding to the material world. Those who
talk about [support] population control have taken the place of God, whereas
God says: get married even if you are poor.’Ahmadinejad seems to consider family planning policy to be
originating in a secular, un-Islamic perspective. He is addressing those
experts or authorities who still see family planning as efficient and an
appropriate strategy under the economic situations caused by the
American-led sanctions. The expression khod ra jaye khodâ neshandan
‘taking the place of God’ is a sarcastic remark used to condemn any
policy-making presumed to be against Islamic beliefs. In other words,
sticking to family planning policy is overpowering God, the omniscient,
who orders humans to do otherwise, as claimed by Ahmadinejad. His
statement implies that getting married is synonymous with un-checked
procreation regardless of economic conditions of the family.
Similar to the previous statement, in another speech, he relies upon a
widely accepted cultural-religious notion to encourage Iranians to not be
concerned about economic conditions as an excuse to avoid having more
children:
(11) khodavand ruzirasan ast va manaye do bache kafist yani inke dar 40 sal e
ayandeh digar nami az iran vojud nadarad (www.bbc.co.uk/persian,
16/05/2010).
‘God is the nourisher and the meaning of ‘two children is enough’ is that in 40
years, Iran’s name will vanish.’A rough translation for ruzi rasân would be ‘nourisher’, an assumed
property of God in Iranian culture, which means that for each person God
considers certain living expenses or funding, and parents should not worry