In accordance with Article 1117 of the civil code, a husband can bar his wife from occupations
he “deems against family values or inimical to his or her reputation.”9 In practice, in order to ban
his wife from a certain profession, a husband must file a case in court and provide justification to
a judge.
Based on the labor laws, there is a mechanism included in the structure of the Ministry of Labor
that is tasked with receiving and analyzing complaints related to labor standards. Despite their
existence, these mechanisms are not known to be efficient. Reports from the last few years
describe a pattern of workers’ complaints regarding poor working conditions, exploitation and
discrimination being disregarded, leading to public displays of protest. 10
There are no reports that would indicate the existence of effective state-sponsored campaigns
aimed at helping employers and workers in identifying discrimination and promoting equality in
Iranian workplaces.
In 1980, Iran’s government established the Technical and Vocational Training Organization
under the Ministry of Labour. This organization is in charge of arranging vocational courses
ranging from 1 to 18 months in duration in the public sector, with permanent centers and mobile
training centers for rural areas, as well as in prisons, garrisons, industries and in private
authorized institutions. In the Persian year 1396 (2017), there were reportedly 552 such
institutions, in which 191 were for men, 95 women and 226 were multi-gender. This represents a
slow decline in the number of training centers, of which there were 588 in the Persian year 1395,
698 in 1394 and 719 in 1393.11 Nevertheless, it is not apparent whether a decrease in quantity of
vocational and technical training opportunities is correlated with a similar decrease in quality.
There are no reports that indicate that this mechanism has had a substantial positive effect in the
labor market for women.
There are currently no female ministers in the government’s cabinet. No provincial governors are
women. The government recently appointed three women as “county governor” out of 430
positions across the country.12 The administration appointed women to 13 out of 1,058 district
governors, mostly in small provinces across the country.
Unemployment in Iran has decreased slightly in 2019. According to numbers from Persian year
1397 (March 2018 - March 2019), unemployment sits at 12% of the population, compared to
11.9% the previous year. Male unemployment in ages 15-29 was 21.2% of the population
9
The Civil Code: https://shenasname.ir/laws/6664
https://www.en-hrana.org/four-months-report-of-workers-conditions-in-iran and https://en.radiozamaneh.com/29631/ and
https://en.radiozamaneh.com/28616/
11
Combined data from the Iranian Statistics Center (https://www.amar.org.ir/ )and the Annual statistics of the Ministry of Labor
and Social Affairs. (https://plp.mcls.gov.ir/ )
12
Executive rankings at the provincial level: 1) Governor, 2) County Governor, 3) District Governor, 4) Village President.
10
2