determinants of women's reproductive behavior among shiite and sunni religious groups

to what extent do socio-economic and cultural factors influence fertility? what are women's fertility conditions among different religious sub-groups? to answer these questions, the required data were collected from 362 shiites and sunni women living in sarpolzhab, iran. then the collected data were analyzed. the results indicated a statistically significant difference between the reproductive behaviors of these two religious groups of women although the fertility rates of both groups were low. this significant difference reveals the potentials of a special theological hypothesis in explaining the differences in fertility rate among different demographic groups. multivariate analyses showed that a combination of cultural, socio-economic and demographic features plays a decisive role in explaining the different rates of fertility among shiite and sunni women (39% vs 20.1%). also, multivariate analyses showed that controlling all independent variables, religion retains its significant impact although the intensity of this relationship decreases while other variables are controlled. hence, the future demographic policies should be focused on the single-child married women and married women without children who were conspicuous among shiite women in the sample studied here. therefore, the government policies and the demands and interests of families need to be closely aligned.