Springer book awarded prestigious prize in Iran

The Fertility Transition in Iran: Revolution and Reproduction has been selected as this year's winner of the World Prize for the Book of the Year of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Edited by Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, Peter McDonald and Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, the book is the first to attempt to explain why the fertility rate in the Islamic Republic of Iran fell drastically at the end of the 20th century. The prize is awarded by the Iran Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

Confounding all conventional wisdom, the fertility rate in the Islamic Republic of Iran fell from around 7.0 births per woman in the early 1980s to 1.9 births per woman in 2006. That this, the largest and fastest fall in fertility ever recorded, should have occurred in one of the world's few Islamic Republics demands explanation. The Fertility Transition in Iran: Revolution and Reproduction, based on a decade of research, is the first to attempt such an explanation. The book documents the progress of the fertility decline and displays its association with social and economic characteristics.

The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance founded "The Book of the Year of the Islamic Republic of Iran" in 1983 and "The World Prize for the Book of the Year of the Islamic Republic of Iran" in 1993. The aim of the prizes is to select and introduce international books and honor their authors for elevating general knowledge and culture. Every year books published in the previous year in countries other than Iran in various languages are reviewed. The President's special plaque of commemoration and valuable prizes are awarded to the authors.

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