Iranian labour laws protect the right to work without discrimination,17 yet forbid women from
being employed in “dangerous, arduous or harmful work”.18 Women cannot be employed in certain
positions in the Government or Judiciary, including where women are barred from serving as
judges in the courts.19 Job benefits, such as social security and health insurance, family bonuses or
paid overtime, inhere to the man.2021 Additionally, Iranian labour laws do not provide legal
safeguards against discrimination within the hiring process.
There is a mechanism, falling under Ministry of Labour oversight, that is tasked with receiving
and analysing complaints related to labour standards. Yet there is no readily available information
with regards to the number of complaints received of gender-based discrimination when accessing
employment or within the workplace, or whether such complaints have been addressed. While
there are no official and readily available reports of cases of discrimination within the workplace
in Iran, in practice, non-discrimination provisions reportedly fail to be enforced.22 Reports of
women facing discrimination, sexual harassment and assault, notably in the workplace, have
gained more visibility in recent times, including on social media in Iran.2324
Although it has not addressed the discriminatory nature of its domestic legal framework as
described above, the Government engaged in several actions to address women’s access to
employment in Iran. By the order of President Rouhani, the Supreme Administrative Council
reportedly has decided to allocate 30% of the managerial positions to Iranian women. The
Government also established a National Task Force on the Empowerment of Female Heads of
Households, in the field of developing employment and entrepreneurship, and launched the
Women's Business Development and Acceleration Center, which is aimed at “strengthening rural
women's associations and cooperation” as well as “entrepreneurship development for women”. 25
Out of the 41 million Iranian population of women and girls,26 the Government has reported that
4,000 individuals are “active female entrepreneurs”.27 According to the Government, women’s
economic participation rate domestically “has risen from 12.4% in 2013 to 16.4% in 2018”.28 Other
governmental statistics published in 2018 reportedly indicated that female economic participation
stood at 15.9%.29 Nonetheless, such rates of female economic participation rank amongst some of
the lowest in the world. In the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report in 2017, Iran
17
Including Article 6, Iranian Labour Code, https://shenasname.ir/laws/kar/1017
Articles 6 and 75, Iranian Labour Code
19
Regulations for the appointment of judges of the country: http://rooznamehrasmi.ir/Laws/ShowLaw.aspx?Code=927
20
Articles 1102 to 1119, 1133 to 1142, Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran. https://iranhrdc.org/the-civil-code-of-theislamic-republic-of-iran/
21
Article 58, Social Security Act, https://shenasname.ir/laws/tamin/1024
22
Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/05/25/its-mens-club/discrimination-against-women-irans-job-market
23
BBC, https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35535269
24
Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/22/iranians-break-taboos-with-their-own-version-of-metoo; and Human
Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/09/iran-having-its-metoo-moment
25
UPR 2019, National Report, Islamic Republic of Iran, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/1
26
World Bank, 2019, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.FE.IN?locations=IR
27
UPR 2019, National Report, Islamic Republic of Iran, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/1
28
UPR 2019, National Report, Islamic Republic of Iran, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/1
29
Statistical Centre of Iran, https://bit.ly/330NG8t
18
3