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Iran's domestic policies affecting childbearing and women's rights have taken several abrupt twists and turns since the revolution of 1980. Most recently, the government announced that it was striking family planning services from the mix of programs funded by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and that it was encouraging universities to restrict women from enrollment in a wide range of professional disciplines.[1] For the regime's secular critics, particularly those focused on the ongoing decline of women's rights in the Islamic Republic, these reversals are disconcerting but unsurprising, and could have significance for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's regime.

Unlike prior policies that sought to eradicate vestiges of pre-revolution Iran, both aim...