An Iranian official has called for the sterilization of female sex workers and homeless drug addicts in Tehran to prevent "social harm."
Siavash Shahrivar, head of the Social and Cultural Affairs Department in the Tehran Governorate, said those women should be "convinced" to undergo sterilization.
"There is a reality, a view, agreed on by many NGOs and the social elite, that if a women is sick, and is also a sex worker and has no place to stay, she should be sterilized with her own approval, and not forcefully," Shahrivar was quoted as saying on January 1 by Iranian media.
"Over 20 percent of them have AIDS and [they] spread various diseases," Shahrivar told the semiofficial ILNA news agency.
"In addition to...spreading depravity, they reproduce like hatching machines and as their children have no guardians, they sell them," he added.
Iranian media estimate that there are more than 3,000 homeless women in in the capital.
