Minister of Labor: Women's Rights in Iranian Workplaces Are Not Respected

The Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare states that women's rights in Iranian workplaces are generally not respected and they are typically employed at lower wages than men. According to the state news agency IRNA, Ali Rabiei said on Saturday, February 6, "Activating cooperatives in villages and small towns is one of the actions that can be taken to enhance women's economic and social participation." Masoud Nili, the economic advisor to the President of Iran, has also emphasized that women's share in industrial employment is "very low," while their share in higher education is increasing. Previously, Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, noted in his latest report that women constitute only 16% of Iran's workforce, stating that there are "no real" signs of improvement in women's participation in the Iranian labor force. In recent months, 36 Iranian parliament members have prepared a bill titled "Protection of Chastity and Hijab," which, if approved, would require women's employment in businesses to be conducted with "avoidance of mixing with men" and only during the hours of 7 AM to 10 PM. In September, the issue of banning women from working in cafes and gender segregation in the Tehran municipality was a topic of discussion between the government and agencies such as the police and the Tehran municipality. According to the minutes of the Tehran municipality, all senior and middle managers in the Tehran municipality must only use male employees for roles such as office manager, secretary, telephone operator, typist, and follow-up officer in their offices. Some managers from Hassan Rouhani's government expressed opposition to this resolution, while several parliament members supported it. Regarding the government's view on gender segregation, Shahindokht Molaverdi, the Vice President for Women’s Affairs, also stated on February 6 that "the government does not agree with gender segregation in offices and universities in the name of sanitizing the work environment" because, according to her, "Iranian men and women have certainly learned the boundary between private and work environments after 35 years since the victory of the Islamic Revolution." Previously, on Wednesday, October 15, she had stated that in Iran, women's economic workforce is considered marginal.