Digital reproductive governance in Iran: surveillance, bodily autonomy, and feminist resistance

Abstract

In recent years, Iran has undergone a profound transformation in its population policies, shifting from public health-oriented family planning toward an increasingly restrictive pronatalist agenda. Following the enactment of the 2021 Law on Supporting the Family and the Youth of the Population, reproductive governance has become increasingly embedded within digital health infrastructures that enable the collection, integration, and monitoring of reproductive data. While these systems are officially presented as mechanisms for improving maternal health, they simultaneously expand state capacity to monitor reproductive behavior and restrict bodily autonomy. This thesis examines how the digitalization of healthcare has reshaped reproductive governance in Iran and investigates its implications for women's reproductive rights, privacy, and bodily autonomy. Drawing upon Foucauldian biopolitics, reproductive governance, digital authoritarianism, technofeminism, and data justice, the study analyses the intersection of law, technology, and lived experience. Methodologically, the research combines legal and policy analysis of the 2021 population law with an examination of digital surveillance infrastructures, including the SIB health system, the National Healthy Pregnancy Registry, and the Abortion Reporting Portal. These findings are complemented by empirical material consisting of an Instagram-based survey conducted through Zaagaah's public platform together with participant observation developed through sustained involvement in Zaagaah, a feminist accompaniment network supporting access to reproductive healthcare in Iran. The findings demonstrate that reproductive governance in Iran has evolved into a form of digital reproductive governance, in which reproductive control is exercised not only through legal restrictions but also through interconnected digital infrastructures that render reproductive life increasingly visible and governable. The thesis further develops the concept of digital reproductive anxiety to explain how anticipated surveillance reshapes healthcare-seeking behavior, producing fear, delayed medical care, and self-censorship even in the absence of direct state intervention. At the same time, the case of Zaagaah illustrates that digital technologies also create opportunities for feminist resistance by enabling alternative infrastructures of care, knowledge sharing, and accompaniment. By integrating legal analysis with empirical evidence, this thesis contributes to research on reproductive governance, digital authoritarianism, and data justice. It argues that in contemporary authoritarian contexts, struggles over reproductive rights extend beyond access to abortion and healthcare to encompass questions of data governance, digital surveillance, and the right to bodily autonomy in an increasingly datafied society.