Volume 18, Issue 70 (2-2019)                   refahj 2019, 18(70): 105-140 | Back to browse issues page


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Arshi M, Sharifian Sani M, Takaffoli M. (2019). Universal Family Welfare Policies in Iran. refahj. 18(70), 105-140. doi:10.29252/refahj.18.70.105
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-3334-en.html
Abstract:   (4020 Views)
Introduction:Nowadays in societies, families are seen as agents and beneficiaries of development, and therefore policymakers and planners make all of their decisions and take necessary actions based on the promotion and protection of this social institution. Different countries have different policies in the field of family policies, such as in the terms of the universal approach vs. mean-tested one to the provision of welfare services. Therefore, this research aims to analyze family policies in Iran according to existing documents and laws, in order to determine which policies, and consequently, services are planned for families universally.
Method: The paradigm of this study is qualitative, that is, the social policies and laws about family have been analyzed qualitatively. The study population includes all laws and legislations of Iran since the Islamic Revolution (1979). It should be noted that the laws and legislations that have been approved before February 1979 would also have been considered as study population if they had still been valid. All laws and legislations which have been approved by the end of March 2017 were reviewed and analyzed. The sample size was initially 171 documents, in the end, 130 documents remained according to established criteria (1- The family is addressed directly in the title or goals of the law; in fact, preservation, promotion or health of the family are some goals of these laws; and 2- It is mentioned directly that the law is for the individual and his or her family, or seeing the person in the context of the family, such as being a spouse and mother, or considering the family relations, such as child custody and marriage). After classification of documents in 14 welfare service user groups, 35 documents were found to be related to the universal family policies. The qualitative content analysis method was used to analyze the data so that the main concepts and themes were extracted.
Findings: According to analysis and coding of 35 policies and laws related to families, three main themes of sanctity of the family, addressing the basic needs of the family, and reproduction of family have been extracted. Most of the laws refer to the family as a worthwhile and sacred unit. The goal of most of these laws is to strengthen and assure sustainability of the family. Some of them specifically address family stability and divorce by establishing counseling systems, special family courts, and prevention of divorce. In some of the laws, the responsibility of family protection is provided by the family with strategies of nurturing and providing the children’s emotional needs and promoting the interaction of the husband and wife. Finally, the three macro policies refer to the family-centered laws and policies. Considering the importance of this concept, the preservation and protection of the family can be considered as a great goal and criterion governing all the other categories in different levels of policy making and legislation. According to the second category, the legislator has also taken account of the basic needs of the all families in five areas of health (such as family physician program), insurance (all the family members’ insurance), housing (such as considering housing as a right and priority to provide housing for low-income families), economics and income (such as paying attention to family poverty, Economic Development Program and Subsidies Targeting Program), and security (general and limited use of this term). Finally, the issue of reproduction of family and population, in various documents, varies according to changes in population policy-making, and includes both reducing and increasing population growth and in fact the purpose of these documents is the population, which can be regarded as a top priority.
Discussion: Considering the results of analysis of laws, it can be stated that family welfare policies are less explicit in documents that are for of all families and mostly addressed the needs, such as housing and income.  Although in this study the policies and laws for general population of families have been extracted and analyzed, in many of these documents, there is not a universal approach to family. In many of addressed needs, the terms, such as vulnerable, unemployed, and so on could be seen. Thus it can be concluded that there is a pathological and mean-tested approach to family welfare in Iran. According to the study, family-centered laws and policies have been mentioned in limited documents which is in contrast to a significant number of documents mentioning sanctity of the family. The operationalization of this family-centering has not been mentioned either, and it is limited to overall and macro recommendations. It seems that the goal of maintaining and sustaining a family is predestinarian, in fact instead of developing a context for family sustainability, efforts have been made to preserve and sustain it by establishing specialized courts, family counseling, and legal facilities. The strategies proposed to protect the family’s sanctity are macro strategies that need to be planned in operational levels. Finally, it could be concluded that explicit policies in the area of family welfare have to become a specific part of Iran policies. Besides, universal services should be defined and, of course, for vulnerable families, some specific policies and services should be considered in further studies since they were not addressed in this article. In fact, family-centered laws can help reducing family risks and even influences of other policies on family, such as the economy.

 
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Type of Study: orginal |
Received: 2019/01/27 | Accepted: 2019/01/27 | Published: 2019/01/27

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