Iran is in the grip of heated debate on whether homeless women who are addicted to drugs should be sterilized. The controversy began Dec. 27 after Shahrvand daily published images of homeless men and women sleeping in open graves in a cemetery near Shahriar, a small town in Tehran province. The story sent shockwaves across Iran and led to sharp exchanges between the administration of President Hassan Rouhani and its critics over the issues of poverty and corruption in Iranian society. Some officials called for sterilizing homeless women who are addicted to drugs as a solution, and there have been widely divergent reactions in Iran’s political and public spheres.

Those in favor of the idea argue that the children of mothers addicted to drugs won’t have a reasonable quality of life, as they will suffer from health complications, high mortality rates or even end up being sold in exchange for narcotics. Opponents of the proposal, however, point to ethical, legal and religious issues.

The idea of sterilizing homeless women who are addicted to drugs was first proposed in November 2015 by Fatemeh Daneshvar, the head of the social committee of the Tehran City Council. Daneshvar stated that these mothers sell their children, who are born with different medical problems, to gangs for 1 to 2 million rials ($30-$60). Daneshvar said, “Sterilization is not ethical, but we can provide these women with long-term contraception so they cannot get pregnant for six months or a year.”

In an interview with Shahrvand daily last August, Daneshvar also said that the Health Ministry was consulting with senior clerics about issuing a religious edict to approve of the sterilization of these women through methods such as tubal ligation.