Women's Retirement: A Short-Term Traditional Solution by the Parliament

It has not been long since Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, raised the question of why women must choose between motherhood and participation in society. In this short time, the Islamic Consultative Assembly has approved early retirement for women, the Vice President has announced a population and family enhancement plan, and a plan to reduce women's working hours has been passed. Now, all eyes are on the Guardian Council, which is set to review the recent parliamentary decision regarding early retirement for women. According to this new decision, women can apply for retirement without age restrictions after only twenty years of work experience, receiving only two-thirds of their retirement salary. However, until the Guardian Council announces its opinion, there is widespread opposition to this plan. From the Deputy Ministers of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, who say that the approval and implementation of this plan could remove one-third of women from the labor market, to the Director General of Women's Affairs at the Ministry of Education, who believes that this law would lead to the loss of many quality educators, significantly harming the educational system, especially at the elementary level. Despite this, parliament members have approved the plan without regard for its potential consequences. Ahmad Alavi, an economics professor in Sweden, states, 'Creating suitable retirement facilities fundamentally requires sufficient financial capacity from society, the government, and pension funds; otherwise, implementing this plan could be problematic. If adequate financing is not available, for example, if the national income level is not high enough for pension funds to have sufficient revenue, such plans could have negative consequences for both women and society.' Currently, there are 300,000 working women in society. With the implementation of early retirement for women with twenty years of experience, 100,000 working women may exit the labor market due to this law. This comes at a time when, according to official statistics, the unemployment rate for women has risen from 16.8% in 2009 to 19.8% in 2013, indicating a three percent increase, while the unemployment rate for men has decreased from 10.8% to 8.6%. Saideh, a 35-year-old job seeker, discusses the difficulties women face in finding work in Iran: 'Given the current employment conditions in Iran, even boys cannot easily find jobs. As a result, finding work is very difficult in general. Here, we mean jobs that have insurance, fixed working hours; otherwise, there are many fake jobs for both girls and boys. However, finding a job that corresponds to one's field of study and expertise is hard for both genders.' According to Saideh, the most accessible job for young women these days is sales, a job she describes as 'having no insurance and not complying with labor laws. Girls must work long hours. Unfortunately, the conditions are very tough. Sadly, the employer can dismiss them whenever they decide.' The possibility of women being pushed out of the labor market with twenty years of work experience arises when, according to the World Economic Forum report, Iran ranks 139th out of 142 countries in terms of economic opportunity equality between men and women, making it one of the most unequal countries economically. The report emphasizes that Iranian women's average wages are 41% lower than men's. As Ahmad Alavi states, the Islamic Consultative Assembly should remove barriers to improve the situation for women and families, rather than adding new obstacles: 'If the parliament intends to pay attention to improving women's status, it must remove barriers in the labor market. However, the parliament has not done this or does not pay attention to this issue. In a situation where women's place in the labor market in Iran is fundamentally empty, solving the retirement problem in this way will not affect women's economic status.' The strengthening of families comes at a cost that is solely borne by women. As defenders of this plan in the Islamic Consultative Assembly have stated, the main goal of the early retirement plan for women is to return them to the family and strengthen the family unit. However, according to Ahmad Alavi, this goal will not be achieved by implementing this plan: 'The economy and the labor market are not separate. Therefore, we are facing a problem of values and the structure of family and labor market. It seems that if the family structure changes and norms change, women can enter the labor market more and increase their income, and consequently, their retirement problems can be solved more logically than working less and benefiting more from retirement. Because as long as a social group, including men, women, and youth, has not worked enough and does not have income, even if they are eligible for retirement and their retirement age is low, their income will not be sufficient to support their living. Therefore, it seems that the parliament has not entered this issue with a long-term perspective to solve women's problems but rather wants to address women's retirement with a traditional view, which is why it is indifferent to many issues.