The unemployment rate of women in Iran is considered just another example of violence against women. Some experts refer to this type of violence as “economic violence.”
According to the statistics released by the Statistics Center in Iran, the number of unemployed women is higher than men.
The average annual unemployment rate in Iran is 1.8%. With an annual growth rate of 3.8%, the population of unemployed women reached 37,000,516 in 2017. That means that Iranian women’s unemployment rate reached a peak of 32.3% in 2017.
The state-run ISNA news agency reported on November 30, 2018, that the unemployment rate of women had increased from 17% in 2005 to more than 20% in 2016. The unemployment rate for graduate students in the same period increased from 15.7 percent to 20.4 percent. (The state-run ISNA news agency – November 30, 2018)
In a report on November 21, 2018, the Special Commission for the Protection of National Production and Monitoring of the Implementation of Article 44 of the Constitution announced, “The unemployment rate of educated young people is between 50% and 63%; the unemployment rate for young educated women reaches 78%. These are disturbing figures that indicate a very bad situation in the job market.” (The state-run ISNA news agency – November 21, 2018)
Sociologists believe that most of the challenges and problems of women in the economic sphere are due to gender discrimination, and its destructive effects have caused discrimination, inequality, and, in general, some sort of economic violence.
Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the clerical regime, explicitly outlines the attitude governing these laws. He said, “God has created women for a particular area of life… employment is not among the major issues that concern women.” (Khamenei’s official website – April 19, 2014)
According to the regime’s Constitution, having a decent job is not among the fundamental rights of women in Iran. (Preamble to the regime’s Constitution, section on women)
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