I, along with Pete Winstanley, was “surprisingly enlightened” on discovering that the Republic of Iran had the fastest declining fertility rate in the world (HAS, June 29).

I was even more surprised when Pete informed us all that Iran was using methods that had been tried and tested around the world.

Education, family planning and free contraception have been available for years resulting in utter failure to stop the constant rise in fertility in mainly developing countries.

After some research, I discovered that Iran introduced legislation in 1993 that refused meal coupons for families after their third child, reduced social welfare benefits and ordered couples to attend birth control classes before marriage.

Kev McStravick, Darlington.