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Gender discrimination in Iran’s labor market

Iran, March 16, 2019 – Under the rule of mullahs, Iran has become one of the worst countries in terms of opportunities and rights for women. The situation has become so bad that even the regime’s own media are admitting to the poor conditions of women’s rights in Iran.

Recently, state-run Hamdeli news website revealed statistics about unemployment rates among Iranian women. Even though the Iranian regime’s own institutions can’t be trusted to speak truly, the fraction of reality that Hamdeli has revealed speaks volumes to the deteriorating conditions of Iranian women.

Screenshot from Hamdeli website (Title: Women unemployment under gender discrimination)

Screenshot from Hamdeli website (Title: Women unemployment under gender discrimination)

 

 

According to the statistics provided by Hamdeli, women account for half of Iran’s university graduates, but the number of female graduates who don’t succeed in securing a job and are considered unemployed is twice the number of their male counterparts.

This state-run news outlet also states that only 14.9 percent of Iranian women are part of the Iranian labor force and the other 85 percent are deprived of job opportunities.

Hamdeli also states that those women who are “lucky enough” to be hired a job position have to deal with the harsh reality that their salary will be much less than their male coworkers.

 “According to official stats, [Iranian] women’s share of the job market is 20 percent less than the average in countries of Middle East and North Africa,” Hamdeli writes. The employment status of Iranian women is worse than Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan and Oman.

 

Poor salaries

According to Hamdeli’s report, in one of the southern provinces of Iran, women enter the job market with monthly salaries as low as 2.5-7 million rials (approx. $19-50, at current exchange rates). The regime’s declared minimum wage is 11 million rials per month. But in effect, inflation, government corruption and rising prices have raised the real, unofficial poverty line to around 45-60 million rials. This means working women earn a fraction of what they need to support themselves and their families. Current working conditions for Iranian women can only be described as modern slavery.

According to the same media outlet, in some cities and provinces, female teachers earn 5 million rials per month and they are deprived of any form of insurance privileges. In Kogiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad province, 2.5-million-rial salaries have become the norm for women.

In an interview with Hamdeli, one of the women working in a company in Kohgiluyeh said, “Last month, this company has earned 800 million rials.” The company she worked for only had seven employees, one of which earns 7 million rials and the rest earn between 3-5 million rials. Regarding the low pay, the company’s CEO, who has employed several women, said, “In our city, finding work is very hard. There’s no work. Therefore, many people are willing to be employed at any price. In this regard, women have lower expectations than men.”

According to World Economic Forum, women’s share of Iran’s job market is 23 percent less than men while their wages are 41 percent less than those of men. It’s important to note that such stats don’t represent the reality because they rely on figures published by the Iranian regime, which is notoriously renowned for skewing stats to misrepresent the abysmal conditions of the country. For instance, WEF states that women compose 46 percent of Iran’s labor market, while state-run media admit that unemployment rates among Iranian women are twice that of men.

In its report, Hamdeli admits that according to WEF, Iran is ranked 139 in gender equality among 144 countries.

 

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