Iran’s supreme leader urges citizens to procreate, hopes for ‘fruitful results’

In a break from his recent bellicose rhetoric, the latest message from Iran’s as-yet-unseen supreme leader sets his people a more productive mission: get out and make babies.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was reportedly wounded in the US-Israeli bombardment that killed his father and predecessor, and ignited the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic on February 28. He was appointed in March but has not been seen or heard in public since.

But several written messages have been attributed to him, and in the latest — a letter in response to well-wishes from pro-natalists — he urges Iranians to secure great power status by growing their population.

“By earnestly pursuing the correct, necessary policy of population growth, the great Iranian nation will be able to play a major role and experience strategic leaps in the future,” he posts on X.

In a longer version of his remarks carried by state broadcaster IRIB, Khamenei tells activists: “It is hoped that your sincere efforts… will lead to fruitful results, God willing.”

Iran has a population of around 92 million — less than half that of neighboring Pakistan — but official figures show it is still the 17th most populous nation in the world.

The country’s fertility rate has however fallen drastically in recent decades, from 6.5 in 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution, to just 1.7 in 2024, according to World Bank figures.

In 2020, an Iranian health official said state hospitals and clinics had stopped providing vasectomies or handing out contraceptives in order to turbo-charge population growth.

To maintain a regional leadership role and take “long strides toward building the new Islamic-Iranian civilisation,” Khamenei says, Iranians must promote a “culture of childbearing.”