Did you know that Tehran was home to the first condom factory in the Middle East?
When Iran’s fundamentalist Mullahs seized power in 1979, they urged the country to go forth and procreate. Twenty years later, the country had a massive population problem.
By the year 2000, 60 percent of the Iranian population was aged under 25 so the Mullahs, in a remarkable display of political pragmatism, did a complete about-face and instituted one of the world’s most enlightened population control programs (at the time).
For decades, vasectomies would be free and encouraged in Iran. Condoms were distributed for free by national health agencies, and sex education classes were compulsory for all couples about to be married.
Now, circumstances have changed again, with pronatalist policies restricting access to condoms and other contraceptives. A far cry from when this Foreign Correspondent segment was filmed in 2000.
It features the ‘condom king’ of the Middle East, Kamran Hashemi – the man who convinced the clerics that if Iranian men might has well be slipping on condoms made in Iran. Subscribe: https://ab.co/3yqPOZ5
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