Birth Control & the Muslim World—Misconceptions Abound

Updated, 22 August 2013—see entry for Iran.

During a conversation with [name withheld], she mentioned something about how a woman was stoned in Iran for using contraceptives. I mentioned that this seemed unlikely to me, and indeed, I did not believe it was something that happened anywhere. My friend was flustered and little bit annoyed, but she had to admit she had no idea where she'd heard this. I looked it up and discovered (courtesy of the BBC) that Iran, in particular, had a large contraceptives industry, distributed contraceptives free through its national health system, and had mandatory contraceptive education as a precondition to getting a marriage license.

While reading up, I was (a) surprised at how misinformed I was, or, looking at it another way, how odd it was that I had never looked into the matter, and (b) how easily available the information is.

The main historical force driving birth control, based on my (very brief and inadequate) review of many difference countries and cultures is technology: the medical knowledge required to develop safe and reliable BC emerged around 1910, while the materials science required (elastomer production, for example) took off around 1930. Reliability was achieved for most varieties around the mid-1950's.

Most activists might interrupt me here to object that there had to be a movement demanding BC, which is undeniable, but the technology was definitely developed independently. Elastomers and rubber obviously had a huge number of industrial applications, which paved the way for the development of materials suitable for medical use.

(Here follows a summary of what I found, with links):
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