Trends of Poverty in Iran with Gender perspective

Introduction

Iran has been seriously confronted with combined socio economic problems, for more than twenty years. Among major factors of growing poverty in the 80s is the high population growth rates reaching to 3.9% (3.2% from natural increase and 0.7% from immigration of Afghans and Iraqis) the revival of the national family planning program which was delivered through a nationwide network of primary health care facilities with the aid of vast numbers of trained local women public health promoters. Currently Iran’s population growth rate dropped to 1.2 percent a year. More over, as the system of the government, it is governed by the policies which are not based solely on economic decision, short term economic policies, high inflation (between 20 to 40 %), small share of private sector in national economy (15 %), and institutionalized monopolizing behavior have made economic participation for private entities particularly for women difficult and has pushed women to informal and unprotected economy. The short term governmental economic policies have brought uncertainty and high risk for the private sector and individuals to be active in economy and carry out their entrepreneurial inititive.

The other major factor impediment to economy is the low labor productivity level and growth rate coming from inconsistent socio economic policies and management as well as over reliance on rent structures rather than hard work and value added. Sustained high levels of inequality, poverty and vulnerability for a large proportion of the population has been the result of allocating lion shares of public budget to State owned foundations and corporations. Significant differentials between private and social costs and benefits along with continuing to subsidize consumer goods instead of investment on industrial and development infrastructures and supporting competitive private sector to promote the growth are among the key issues. Subsidies, which have been both vast and ranging but untargeted, have resulted in an economic distortion. The rich are continuously gaining more than the poor. In the subsidies policies, we come to this conclusion that lowest percentile benefit only 3.8 per cent, while tenth percentile benefits as much as 20.5 per cent. Therefore top percentile benefits 5.4 times of the lowest percentile. This method has resulted in the smuggling of subsidized goods to neighboring countries through illegal actions. Excessive rent seeking and short term behavior and over reliance on oil exports revenues which is the source of 80% of the country’s export income is also among factors that enforce unjust asset distribution through out the country. Disaggregated data are even more revealing of the discrepancies. The HDI shows high dispersion amongst provinces while the gender adjusted HDI shows an even higher dispersion.

The low employment ratio and lower participation rate of total labor force in comparison with most of the countries; in addition to the lower than average female labor force participation (FLFP) and their participation in its political process are two key characteristics of Iranian labor market. Low rate of women’s participation affected the total labor force participation where the gap in employment rates amounts to almost six times privileged for men. Stereotyping and limited job options for employment in service and education sectors are among socio/cultural factors hampering women’s wider participation in economy. The society should be able to accept women in trade, women in the police force, etc. Otherwise, their opportunities would be restricted to teaching, nursing, clerical work, in lower positions, and to women exclusively with top levels of university education. Giving women equal opportunities to contribute to economic life would significantly enhance the growth prospects and economic productivity of the countries. Women are also active in jobs such as hairdressing, baking cookies,, mass production of handicrafts and sewing. However, these jobs are marginalized to informal sector and as such, no official statistics exist for a quality research. Middle class, lower income groups, urban and rural women, who are engaged in these activities, do not have means and machinery to organize their associations or unions. One of the reasons Iranian women engage mostly in informal economic activities, is that they can combine it with their routine household duties. On the other hand, often the income is higher than official wage and women are not restricted to be present in an office for long hours.


Rise of Level of Education

World Bank analysis reveals that if the female labor force participation rate increased in accordance with education levels and age structure, household earnings could rise by as much as twenty-five percent. For many families, this is the only way to step out of poverty vicious circle, which demonstrates the instrumental role that women play in lifting their families out of poverty and influencing the larger socio-economic climate.
The prospect of increasing economic participation by women are anticipated for Iranian female workers due to rise of level of education, delayed marriages and climb of average marriage age, changes in population age structure, decrease of fertility rate, changes in customary gender roles in households and stereotyping. Studies show that the increasing cost of living requires women to participate in economic activity to overcome poverty.

The slight share of compulsory education and further development in household expenditure according to the Statistical Center of Iran and the Central Bank indicates that the Government bears a considerable share of the cost of education and training of human resources in Iran. However due to structural constraint of private sector to meaningfully engage in national economy the massive brain drain has brought a total loss for the government in its investment in education. Moreover the recent accelerated trend of poverty among literate headed households in different levels of education can be associated with over supply and the rising of unemployment among educated women. On the supply side in recent years, the increase in the female participation rate and the rapid improvement of the educational profile of the labor force brought in to the labor market a large number of mostly young, well qualified female workers. These developments took place at a time of significant restructuring and slow down in the pace of economic growth in Iran and as a result the unemployment rate will likely continue to increase. On the other hand the analysis of poverty trend on the basis of literacy of the head of household indicates that illiterate women in both villages and cities have always been exposed to poverty much more than educated women. In 1991, 47.5 per cent of illiterate women were head of poor households. This ratio has been 72.2 and 27.8 per cent respectively for women in urban and rural areas.

In urban areas the rate of unemployment for educated women raised to 31.5% while for other urban women this figure stays at 18.1%. The unemployment for educated women will see accelerated rise in future due to lack of effective job creation policies.Women’s share of total employed is approx. 14.8% but their share of most recent employed has increased to 24.2%. The government estimates that to bring down unemployment it would need about 700,000 new jobs every year for the next five years. Yet employment creation has not been sufficient to meet the rapid increase in the labor force, inflation is high and rising again, price subsidies and controls continue to hinder economic efficiency, and structural impediments for private sector development remain unchanged.





Women household heads

The census in Iran is concerned with family units and not individuals. Therefore in the majority of conducted studies, poverty among female headed households is analyzed as women’s poverty which has multi–dimensional aspects. In all developing countries women’s poverty is of chronic type, stemming out of social and cultural factors entanglement. The situation of women, and in particular the 1.3 million women headed households (Iran Statistics Centre 1997), is particularly vulnerable. Statistics further indicate that 9% of all women bearing the burden as head of households. Labor regulations and family laws in Iran reinforce the traditional family model, making women financially, legally and socially dependent on men. The responsibility of male figure of the household as the sole bread winner is clearly marked in the Constitution. In 1996, each employed person had to provide for the living expenses of 4.2 persons, which would cause the reduction of the level of savings of households hence the national savings. On the other hand, the commonly held belief that in situations of unemployment women would take away jobs from men was not confirmed by the researchers. Evidences point out to job opportunities created by economically active women who work out of home while they use other services to fulfill their homemaking tasks.

The majority of the researches have concentrated their attempts to determine poverty line based on income (expenditure) poverty line due to scarcity of data. One of the restrictions of statistics is that, expenditures are determined and defined collectively for the household, so there is no information about the allocation of expenditures among family members, men, woman and children. In this regard, the verification of poverty and deprivation among women in families is not possible. Considering this limitation for the verification of poverty based on gender, the gender of the family bread-winner is the measure and the degree of poverty among families whose bread–winners is a woman (women headed households), has been analyzed in accordance with economic and social and geographical situation.

Women household heads had a consistently higher percentage of poverty than men; however the gap between the two groups recently decreased over time. The gender sensitive poverty analysis shows that being a woman as head of household increases the possibility of falling in absolute poverty. In 1991, 1996 and 2001; 45.4per cent, 52 per cent and 17.5 per cent of all female headed households successively did not earn the minimum levels and ended up living in absolute poverty. While the same figures for men were 25.4 per cent, 16.1 per cent, and 14.8 per cent. The results of sampling indicate descending trend of poverty among women compared to men, however, the share of poor women has always been larger. In the period 1991 – 1996, poverty among women had increased but during the next interval (1996 – 2001) the situation of female headed households did in fact substantially improve.

In an economic analysis the high percentage of poverty among aged head of households, has been regarded as an indicator of inefficiency of relief and insurance organizations, as well as social security systems - despite having sufficient budgets - and lack of optimal use of their savings. Female labor participation is the only entering point into the social security system of the country. The policies which increase inflation can also be highly significant in the increase of this ratio and worsening the intensity of poverty.


The health dimension

In Health while Iran has a well performing basic health system and good health indicators, it still has a high rate of childhood malnutrition. In recent researches the widespread issue of iron deficiency among women and girls - and 2.5 Cm reduction of the height of children particularly girls were revealing the issue of malnutrition.

Women’s life expectancy increased by ten years since 1980, largely due to better healthcare and a fall in maternal mortality. Yet gains in women's health and education, with as much as 65 percent of university students being female, have not translated into commensurate gains in employment. Even though there was great success to avail education for girls and women as well as the growth of literacy, creating jobs and promoting employment opportunities for educated at all levels is indispensable for elimination of poverty among women. Based on the 2002 census (Statistical Center of Iran) results, the size of the average urban household in 2001 was 4.47 persons. The average number of employed persons per family was 1.1 persons and the average number of income earners was 1.4 persons.
Based on the latest statistics in 1991, about 27.4 per cent of sample families were living under poverty line. This ratio had decreased to 18.8 per cent in 1996 followed by 15.3 per cent in 2001. As the result, annually, an average of 5.6 per cent of families has been able to get disentangled from the vicious cycle of absolute poverty. The pace of poverty reduction in the first period can be attributed to the post – war conditions. Indicators under study relevant to health and medical and education endorse slight improvement in poverty reduction and anti discrimination policies while in job creation and housing the improvement acquired was negative.

Increasing the economic capacity of women has undoubtedly been a key factor in improving their status. However, as men are unwilling to take on traditionally female roles, the women are overburdened. The family arrangements are still quite unequal in terms of sharing the burden of housework and child care. Studies show value added for food preparation usually carried out by women in the period 1984 – 1995, could increase GDP by 10 per cent. Using the method in which value added is accounted as work of equivalent value and according to cost substitute - the figure for food preparation would come up to 15.4 per cent of GDP in 1994.




Poverty in Rural/Urban Household

Women in the agriculture sector are economically under privileged due to the fact that 54 percent of employed women in this sector are family and non-wage workers (Statistical Center of Iran, 2001). In rural areas, research is needed to find the causes that women often earn less than men in agriculture and what factors lead women to be less productive. Women farmers often find it difficult to adopt productivity enhancing their access to technology. Traditionally they are less likely to demand rights to land and control over their asset. The Statistical Center’s annual samplings in the last decade show lower living standards in rural areas compared to urban. The annual average gross expenditures of rural to urban household have been 55.4, 60.1 and 61.5 per cent successively, in the years, 1991, 1996 and 2001. As a result, the household expenditures for rural family stand for 55 to 65 per cent of that of urban areas on average.

The ratio of rural population of the country has decreased from 42 per cent in 1991 to 38 per cent in 1996 and continued to decline to 36 per cent in 2001. The increase of the poverty percentage among jobless heads of household in urban areas compared to rural areas resulted from the immigration of the young men from villages to cities in the expectation of finding a better job and income. Due to the fact that they are unsuccessful at the early stages to find a job, this trend will entail the increase of number of the poor unemployed. The poverty index in rural and urban societies implies that poverty has decreased in urban areas from 36.6 (1991) to 17.6 (1996) and further decreased to 15.2 per cent in 2001. The mentioned descending trend also holds true in rural areas. Poverty in rural areas droped to 20 per cent and later to 15 percent in 1996 and 2001 respectively from initial figure of 18.2 per cent in 1991.

In the agricultural sector, the level of poverty among female household heads was higher than the average relative poverty levels among men and women. According to data, women labour force in agricultural sector is estimated around 40 per cent. Studies show more than 82.5 per cent of rural women do participate in some sort of income generation activities at home or work place. Only 51 per cent of rural women generate income, meaning 49 per cent of women are not able to earn income whether or not they participate in economic activities. They are considered as housewives in categorization of the Iran Statistic Centre.

Dividing the percentage of poverty among jobless to urban and rural, certain verifying points emerge for further analysis. The percentage of poverty in urban and rural areas among families with unemployed head of households in 1991 was 48.6 and 24.6 per cent respectively. These rations changed to 27.9 and 31.8 in 1996 and 2001 in urban areas, whereas the percentage of poverty in rural areas with unemployed head reached 28.3 and 26.4 per cent. On the other hand, among employed household heads in urban areas the percentage of poverty was 32.3, 14.2, and 14.8 per cent respectively in 1991, 1996 and 2001, whereas the same figures for villages were 16.7, 15.7 and 13 per cent successively.

The percentage of women in the first tenth percentile is between 27 per cent and 36 per cent while in the ninth and tenth tenth percentiles, it does not exceed 7 per cent. In most cases, the share of women in latter two tenth percentiles is between three and four per cent.

Approximately 31 per cent of urban homemakers and 54 per cent of rural homemakers were in the first twentieth percentile. The significant gap between urban and rural dwellers can be due to the greater opportunities for urban households to rely on other active (those who are employed) members in the family. In fact, the number of employed persons per household is the key factor for escaping the poverty.

The urban unemployed identify themselves as unemployed, yet they have a variety of short-term opportunities in small-scale or informal commerce, transport of passengers and other financial activities at their disposal, which probably enables them to secure their livelihood to a certain extent. Such opportunities are much less available in rural areas. The same situation holds also true regarding homemakers.

Examining the economic activities of household heads by economic sector reveals that employed persons in the agricultural sector hold the highest share in the first and second tenth percentiles (approximately 32 per cent). Employees in the industry and mines sector compose approximately 25 per cent of this twentieth percentile. Employees in these two sectors are in a more precarious situation than those in the other sectors. Agricultural workers compose 10 per cent and industrial and mines workers compose 16 per cent in the last twentieth percentile.

In the service sectors, those who work as financial intermediaries or “middlemen” are the most prosperous. Approximately 91 per cent are in the fourth and fifth twentieth percentiles and only 9 per cent are in the second twentieth percentile. Employees in the construction sector compose 14 per cent of the first twentieth percentile and they have similar compositions in the twentieth percentiles that follow. As the twentieth percentiles increase in prosperity, the share of employees in the trade sector increases as well. The same make-up can be observed in the transportation and communications sector. The share of these sectors in the upper twentieth percentiles is 28 per cent and 29 per cent respectively.


Access to Financial Resources

The laws of inheritance and the policies on micro credits have limited the access of women to financial resources as banks do not promote lending without collateral. Women’s lack and poorly enforceable rights over property in the labor market and in the home means that they are more vulnerable to poverty than men. The contingent nature of women’s rights over resources and property, often secured through family or marriage ties, means that even women in wealthy households are vulnerable to poverty, especially in the event of separation, divorce, widowhood or other household breakdown.

Because women are less mobile than men, banks are harder for them to reach; more women than men are illiterate, making documentation difficult, and majority of women lack collateral. In addition, since women have been less present in the economic sector, their entrepreneurship power and skills are less improved. All these factors also make greater income gap between men and women in the traditional part of the economy. In the higher education the gap is created gradually, through fewer opportunities of job promotion and additional advantages available for men. The fact that men have monopolized linking and lobbying with high ranking power players has limited access of women to higher positions and made it exclusive to men; or at best through middle men. Stereotypical prejudgements about female emotional and behavioural characteristics preclude the progress of women in the organizational hierarchy.

Families who are engaged in small businesses have increased their income, are less dependent on government assistance, and have more secured food. Through the marketing research, poor producers, men and women who would like to be engaged in small businesses should be able to get knowledge and professional advice on effective business management, community funds establishment, and better access to local and regional markets.

The effectiveness of the social security programs considering variety of risks, efficiency, and coverage are under question. For instance, old age pension per capita for a 5 members household and more in support services in 2001, was between Rls. 60.000 and Rls. 150.000, which is concerned only to cover less than 20 per cent of the basic household needs.

In general, social ills such as smuggling, drug addiction, escape of young girls from home, prostitution, selling body parts, etc. are drastically increasing. In issues regarding drug abuse, the problem can be reviewed from two aspects: demand and supply. Demand for narcotics comes largely from the unemployed, deprived and powerless whose share of the addict population is much higher than their share in the society at large. Escaping from decay, despair and deprivation is considered as the main cause of seeking relief in drugs.

Prostitution and trafficking of women with few exceptions, is initially associated with poverty and deprivation even when there is consent. Studies in and about street girls, teenage prostitution and women smuggled to Dubai demonstrate this stark reality. Similarly, youth delinquency, increase in street children and child labour (presently about 550,000 children below 15 working in Iran) are undoubtedly related to poverty, deprivation and broken homes.

Of crucial importance, though often ignored by officials, is the fact that, increase in vulnerabilities and social upheavals emerges in the wake of poverty compounded by injustice, unfair distribution of income and discrimination. Structural adjustment policies for more than a decade have resulted in severe inequality of income and wealth, increased the likelihood of widespread financial abuse, and further cemented the lack of democratic controls over management. Together they have contributed terribly to social problems and the regrettable state of affairs.

In conclusion, ineffectiveness of the social security system and its supportive programs are less due to scarcity of financial resources and mostly are the outcome of improper budget allocation, mismanagement and lack of systemic approach. In this respect, ignorance of NGOs in relief and aid delivery is significant which has to be seriously addressed.

One of the priorities in the country’s future macro-economic policies will be paying greater attention to policies that stimulate economic growth on the condition that deprived and poor households can derive benefits from such growth.


Reducing Barriers to Economic Opportunities

Women’s economic participation is considered one of the elements of the sustainable development therefore endogenous, durable and new development plans tend to attract women as a partner in production activities. Economists affirm that female awareness and education has a higher social return because of the important role educated women play in promoting well being of others. It is agreed that women participation in labor force will maximize social output, which can also justify governments investing more in women’s education, than in men. At the margin, additional income in the hands of women results in a larger share of the household budget going toward nutrition, health, and education. The greater the woman’s control over household resources, the greater is the share of resources devoted to children (WB, Gen & Dev Report, 2003, 72).

Target planning for providing subsidies, in addition to capacity building and empowerment of the poor instead of providing livelihood, along with effective macro economic policies for long-term are recommended for future to alleviate poverty. The review of the legislative environment to ensure that women benefit from equal rights granted under the constitution; a supportive infrastructure such as better child care, transport, water and telecommunications to facilitate women's participation in the public sphere; continued attention to education, particularly to provide women with relevant market skills; and reform of labor laws and regulations to reflect the new demands and development model and the need for job creation in the private sector particularly promoting entrepreneurship among women.

Promoting entrepreneurship: policies to encourage female elites and entrepreneurs are the key to eradicate poverty, in addition to improving the tourist industry and small business for women’s participation in food or textile industry; providing support for women NGOs; engagement in innovative projects for environment preservation; removal of gender inequalities in decision making process are recommended to further improve women’s status.


NASRIN AZADEH



References:

1) UNDP Poverty Report, 2003
2) Dr. Parvis Piran, (2000), Welfare Science University publishing, (Poverty in Iran: 43)
3) Saiid Madani, Welfare Science University publishing, (Poverty in Iran: 279)
4) MPO, Management and Planning Org, Poverty Report, 2003
5) World Bank, Gender and Development in the Middle East and North Africa, Women in the Public Sphere
6) Iranonline.com, Iran economy
7) Gender Analysis of Labor Market in Iran, Ladan Norouzi, 2003, Women Research Journal: 9
8) Iran Statistical Center Report, 2003
9) Dr. Fariborz Raiisdana, Poverty and Social Deviation, University of Allameh Tabatabaii, 2003
10) Alireza Rajaii, Poverty Analysis in Iran, University of Tehran, 2003

From the Island of Courage and Serenity

From the Island of Courage and Serenity
Qeshm Island - Dargahan (the south of south - Iran)
Thinly peopled and silent..........

Dargahan is a tiny island in the far south of Iran – there was no library until the year 2000 when Amineh Daryanavard turned one of the classes of the primary school into small library. In the island girl’s enrolment was allowed only up to fourth grade. At present, at the age of 28, she is about to finish her high school heading for university.

She is a poet:

My non being

Shadow of the trees
Houses
People
Non-shadow of my being
I close my eyes
I turn to breeze

For the most non shadow other than me
I turn to monument
Standing for years

The traveler did not take picture
With his shadow

Where am I?
I ask the non being; do you know the shadow
He doesn’t

I ask my native
Shaping its shadow

I ask the island
With its non shadowy waves

I ask the poet
Far away from the sun
He knows the secret of non shadow of being
Hence, not being and my non being


Translation: Nasrin Azadeh

Masculinities in distorted minds of fundamentalists

Masculinities in distorted minds of fundamentalists

Crippled fundamentalist rulers: archaic or deformed
By Nasrin Azadeh - Iran


Patriarchy fundamental governance with its sets of rules and the ideas that underpin them are manifested in archaic laws, institutions and economic and social structures. Gendered responsibilities for those compelled of participation in this society not only are strictly different for women and men, they are callously inequitable. The primitive rulers frightened from the power of new technologies that appear like black magic are affected with deep inferior complexes in their xenophobic perception of power relations which is alarming not only for women also for modern world.

In Iran the inability of the rulers to provide dignified life for women, maintaining safe environment away from the oppression of abusers, are due to the fact that criminals are positioned in high ranking places where they monitor systematic discrimination and abuse. The prevailing ideology of the tyranny of criminals and mafias is based on hatred and suppression of natural human emotions. The Constitution has only defined women in the traditional framework of motherhood or marriage partner and is bound to train women to serve their role. Family institution is based on patriarchal and tribal relationships where women have least space to have her voice heard let alone the decision making. The continuing economic and political marginalization of women are incorporated in the agenda and sustained with high cost on national economy. The tiny sum of dowry, the only legitimate income reserved for women just contested by the conservative Parliament leading to endorsement of limited ceiling.

The monographs in research projects reflect the inability of national responses to key issues like poverty, housing, governance and technology and the way in which gender determines the different ways that women and men are affected by these issues. The prevailing norms sustain the idea that fundamentalists in their positioning in the hierarchical structures have a strategic common interest in defending their gender superiority imposing bias and inhuman rules and regulations.

Under fundamental State men tend not to think of themselves as ‘gendered’ beings looking through prevailing lens of realities. Gender superiority in social relations that legitimize and sustain men’s power over women, is inherently about power relations between women and men, as well as among men and women. The need to define more precisely and examine questions of men’s responsibility for women’s disadvantage, as well as men’s role in redressing gender inequalities are put forward that lag behind the modern world.

Thus, not having to think about race is one of the luxuries of being of a dominant race, just as not having to think about gender is one of the patriarchal dividends that men gain from their position in the gender order (Men & Masculinities; UNDP, 2000).

Fundamentalist definition of manhood privileges men over men as well by discrimination and institutionalized social bias. Male-dominated institutions and systems produce and sustain gender order that disadvantages women in all spheres of her life. Hard-line masculine fundamentalism version of the term ‘masculinity’ and the assumptions that prefigure, as well as the implications that ensue, are used to enslave women as well as other men. Masculinity here used as a way to explain men — in cultural or social constructionism and masculinity by triggering primitive brains to engage in serious class conflicts and imposing cultural control over others using nation’s wealth and resources. Religious fundamentalism and ethnic nationalism use local cultural symbols to express regional resistance to incorporation by a larger, dominant power.

Along with this, men’s political, economic and cultural privileges considered natural as reflected genetically to further unleash aggressiveness and desires such as sexual drives. To this end, women considered in second class, halving their worth and self esteem, should accept the slaving role to serve in numbers.

In this context narrow perspective of life by religious hardliners define the cultural norms and social pressures to determine the roles, rights, responsibilities and relations that are available to and imposed upon men, in contrast to women. Fundamentalists’ behavior in terms of their masculine identity is incorporated in a broader discussion of the values and practices that shape power relations not only between men and women, but also among men and among women. The few selected women elites passively obey the orders to put forward male supremacy agenda and pretending to be normative and localized for the watchful eyes. The primitive perception of masculine identity that religious fundamentalists illustrate has provided explanations of stereotypically problematic male behaviors that approve violence and uncontested sexual abuse. Women and girls under oppression deprived from basic human rights either chose to cease their life or live with systematic humiliation of surrendering to sexual abuse and sex slavery. In archaic patriarchy ideas women when they grow older instead of respect and attention should be serving younger bride for their husbands. This was frequently publicized in national TV running by fundamental religious followers.

Misogyny, homophobia, racism and class/status-based discrimination are all implicated in a ‘politics of masculinity’ that is developed and deployed by fundamentalists to claim power over women, and to claim power over other men. The pressure that fundamentalism impose on society to conform to specific roles to fit their own agenda to exert full control over resources, has imposed high costs to society and to natural spontaneous gender arrangements.

The hardliner’s insecurity about their masculinity has promoted abusive behavior toward women in general and activists in particular. There is a need of redefinition of being male for those figures that are encompassed in the circle of fundamentalists. Reduce or end violence against women appears to prioritize questions of identity over questions of values for fundamental rulers. Clearly the devaluing of women in laws endorsed by hardliners is constitutive of the meaning of fundamentalism. The legalization of men’s superiority over women is one of the main functions featured in hard line rules by masculinity as natural superiority that lawfully assigns men as heads of household to exert control over women from every aspect. An effect of this ‘natural’ association between men and power is to render their gender invisible in the acquisition of such power.

“One of the significant achievements of feminist scholarship has been to name the connections between men, gender and power and give them visible expression in the term ‘patriarchy’. In both the public and domestic spheres, patriarchy refers to the institutionalization of men’s power over women within the economy, the polity, the household, and in heterosexual relations”(UNDP, Men and Masculinity,2000).

Religious hardliners use of machineries in resisting power over global governance indicates that the entry of more women into positions of power within these structures may be necessary but not sufficient for gender-equitable sustainable human development.

Violence in relationships is a problem of power and control....It is maintained by the social structures of oppression in which we live — based, among others, on gender, class, age, and race inequalities.

The dispute that obliges women to use permanent cover because of men’s uncontrollable desire signifies legal oppression toward women’s basic freedom. One might as well translate that women are not entitled to anything that uncontrollable needs of others might desire, should it be physical or material. In this context women are subject to legal discrimination and deprived from the basic rights of being human or perhaps engage in challenges of life. There is no approval for any space for women as natural, to develop and acquire what they desire, being sexual or emotional. Hardliners force strict orders imposed on women’s intellect, perception, act, aspiration, value, and obliged them to obey what is framed and outlined in the articles of law. Clear cultural, social, economic submissive roles assigned to women in the acts of Iranian Constitution. Women are not expected of any creativity other than their motherhood or sex slavary. This is oppressive language that dictates hard line abusive behavior not only on women but also on other men by minor hardliners.

Men in patriarchal society due to devaluation of women are deprived from true love and human relationship. This encourages and opens their heart to pursue other forms of associations which results in legitimacy of polygamy and continued search for other women or even men. Instead of cherishing natural human relationships, free social association, nurturing a healthy challenge in their love relationships; patriarchy system by taking away challenge out of the access of women; have in fact violated their basic human rights.

It may be useful to look not merely at the violence of men but at the violence that lies at the heart of masculinity’s hierarchizing of difference and the misogyny, homophobia and racism that are embedded in discourses of fundamentalist masculinity. In this sense, for equitable response to the connections between masculinity and violence addressing issues of human rights and discrimination should be on the agenda for international organizations that are preoccupied with defending the rights of women.

As Elson (1991: 15) writes: Overcoming male bias is not simply a matter of persuasion, argument, and change in viewpoint in everyday attitudes, in theoretical reasoning and in policy process. It also requires changes in the “deep structures” of economic and social life, and collective action, not simply individual, action.

12/29/04
NA

Chaos Theory

The world of mathematics has been confined to the linear world for centuries. That is to say, mathematicians and physicists have overlooked dynamical systems as random and unpredictable. The only systems that could be understood in the past were those that were believed to be linear, that is to say, systems that follow predictable patterns and arrangements. Linear equations, linear functions, linear algebra, linear programming, and linear accelerators are all areas that have been understood and mastered by the human race. However, the problem arises that we humans do not live in an even remotely linear world; in fact, our world should indeed be categorized as nonlinear; hence, proportion and linearity is scarce. How may one go about pursuing and understanding a nonlinear system in a world that is confined to the easy, logical linearity of everything? This is the question that scientists and mathematicians became burdened with in the 19th Century; hence, a new science and mathematics was derived: chaos theory.
The very name "chaos theory" seems to contradict reason, in fact it seems somewhat of an oxymoron. The name "chaos theory" leads the reader to believe that mathematicians have discovered some new and definitive knowledge about utterly random and incomprehensible phenomena; however, this is not entirely the case. The acceptable definition of chaos theory states, chaos theory is the qualitative study of unstable aperiodic behavior in deterministic nonlinear dynamical systems. A dynamical system may be defined to be a simplified model for the time-varying behavior of an actual system, and aperiodic behavior is simply the behavior that occurs when no variable describing the state of the system undergoes a regular repetition of values. Aperiodic behavior never repeats and it continues to manifest the effects of any small perturbation; hence, any prediction of a future state in a given system that is aperiodic is impossible. Assessing the idea of aperiodic behavior to a relevant example, one may look at human history. History is indeed aperiodic since broad patterns in the rise and fall of civilizations may be sketched; however, no events ever repeat exactly. What is so incredible about chaos theory is that unstable aperiodic behavior can be found in mathematically simply systems. These very simple mathematical systems display behavior so complex and unpredictable that it is acceptable to merit their descriptions as random.
An interesting question arises from many skeptics concerning why chaos has just recently been noticed. If chaotic systems are so mandatory to our every day life, how come mathematicians have not studied chaos theory earlier? The answer can be given in one word: computers. The calculations involved in studying chaos are repetitive, boring and number in the millions. No human is stupid enough to endure the boredom; however, a computer is always up to the challenge. Computers have always been known for their excellence at mindless repetition; hence, the computer is our telescope when studying chaos. For, without a doubt, one cannot really explore chaos without a computer.
Before advancing into the more precocious and advanced areas of chaos, it is necessary to touch on the basic principle that adequately describes chaos theory, the Butterfly Effect. The Butterfly Effect was vaguely understood centuries ago and is still satisfactorily portrayed in folklore:
"For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost;
For want of a horse, the rider was lost;
For want of a rider, a message was lost;
For want of a message the battle was lost;
For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost!
"
Small variations in initial conditions result in huge, dynamic transformations in concluding events. That is to say that there was no nail, and, therefore, the kingdom was lost. The graphs of what seem to be identical, dynamic systems appear to diverge as time goes on until all resemblance disappears.
The applications of chaos theory are infinite; seemingly random systems produce patterns of spooky understandable irregularity. From the Mandelbrot set to turbulence to feedback and strange attractors; chaos appears to be everywhere. Breakthroughs have been made in the past in the area chaos theory, and, in order to achieve any more colossal accomplishments in the future, they must continue to be made. Understanding chaos is understanding life as we know it. Manus J. Donahue III (physics and philosophy double-major from Duke University).

However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. -Stephen Hawking



Any single individual act generates changes without us being aware of the consequences…........hence, unpredictable movements in non linear systems, such as our social acts, as modest as they might be, in pursuing justice and democracy are conducive - Nasrin Azadeh

Words of Wisdom

He who knows much about others may be learned, but he who understands himself is more intelligent. He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still -Lao-Tsu. Tao Teh King

At first laying down, as a fact fundamental,New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. -John Locke, Essay on Human Understanding

Managing the Contested Mass

The universe is a chaotic place. It is full of uncertainty and it can be difficult to predict exactly what is going to happen at any given time be it the present or the far future. Scientists and mathematicians have developed a theory to explain this phenomenon. It is called chaos theory and it is highly relevant to the field of teaching. Education is an uncertain endeavor.

Chaos is natural phenomenon and a key component of the universe. Chaos may cause uncertainty but it also creates the opportunities that create hope and change. Teachers need to prepare for chaos and accept uncertainty as a natural condition. Teachers can not control the entire universe. But they can make impacts on the small slice of the universe they reside in despite all the chaos evident in it.

Chaos management is about "issue storms"....swirling, turbulent flows of information that blow up when people try to deal with complex issues. Our world is increasingly dominated by issue storms. Our lives are issue driven and chaotic. Our interaction with others is complex and unpredictable.

Because of today's powerful technology, issues tend to mushroom out of control. They spread rapidly, consuming precious cognitive resources in an uncoordinated, confused way. When this happens ----“management quickly loses its ability to manage”--.

The basic, traditional concepts of management are still valid....planning, budgeting, scheduling, reporting and control. But how we implement these concepts needs to be changed to deal with issue storms and chaos. The traditional ways were developed to manage physical activities like manufacturing and construction. But cognitive activities are very different,
that is why the traditional methods have broken down.

Iranian society is in a transit period, from its classical, traditional and certain framework into finding new methods, paving the way from traditionalism into modernity. Hence, the resistance and contest are coloured with cultural-social approach rather than political orientation.

Contested mass appearing in network/grassroot structures where the focus is on life-style rather than social class. It is not ideological in its reaction; there is no cohesion in the structure. The protesters follow the social strategy that confronts the State, and pursue carnival type of methods.

In these movements the main question is not about promoting challenge and debate but it is about how to penetrate into, and benefit out of all the contested categories; women, youngsters, students…..the objective is to formulate the contest to their advantage........hence managing the chaos.

The Manifest of Iranian Student Council Election

The Manifest of Sharif University Student Council Election has been distributed among the students as follows:

Councils will guarantee our interests
No body will guarantee our interest other than ourselves. The idea that an ideal system would assess our problems and resolve the issues is nothing but illusion. This is due to scarcity of resources and too many demands. Hence if we don’t present our cases persuasively they will not be met. Our interests are tide together where we all share following demands:
That we have the right to have top level professors, educational facilities, and updated laboratory equipments.

We have the right of free access to books – now its few years that we have not had any free coupons to purchase books. Perhaps authorities believe we do not deserve to select our own choice of books.

The quality of food should improve. Monitoring the food should be carried out more often.
We have the right to time of and recreation times which will enable us think free and create our own ideas. We have the right to camping, musical concerts, cultural seminars and we have to have proper access to sport accessible to all students.
We have the right to security and we should not feel threatened by spelling our thought and way of thinking. No laws should break our legitimacy of our right to think freely.
We have the right to participate in social and political associations and follow our expectations and demands
There should be sufficient respect to our being student and our individual personality should be respected and dignified. We have to be free to chose the colors of our clothes and at the University‘s Gate we should be dealt with respect and with dignity.

We have the right to protest to achieve our goals and our objectives and we have the right to free associations to pursue our demands
The university should respect our associations and should support them.

Every one has the right to earn equal for the equal labor which questions the student work that is a kind of exploitive attitude toward working students
We demand the systematic isolation of some student to be ceased and we need to be faced with proper and equal approach to all. The approach stemming out of gender discrimination must be uprooted in the whole university. This has ended up dividing us in groups that there is no necessity and has diminished our resources on the campus and in classes.
Above mentioned issues are common shared problems which we all need to tackle at every level. Therefore our interests are entangled within which needs our cooperation to be resolved. In our pursuing our rights we will be facing the authorities in the university which we need to attract their consent in order to actualize our rightful demands. This mutual enactment is what councils are set for and is nothing more than practicing democracy. Democracy is when a power institution will allow an independent group to stand up for its rights. Now that we have the opportunity to put in practice our perception of democracy and carry out a free and independent election we should take the opportunity and take the most of this opportunity. We should always remember that our representatives in the council are only the messengers to put forward our requests and we should walk along with them on this path to fulfill our demands.

Translator: Nasrin Azadeh

Human Rights of Women in Iran - Nasrin Azadeh

Legal Barriers - Human Rights of Women in Iran

Political Machinery to Achieve MDG


Women’s abuse is as ancient as myths. A means of establishing and securing male’s supremacy in the private and public spheres justifies violence against women. In Iran all forms of violence such as political and judicial belligerence, financial, psychological, and sexual is rampant. Islamic fundamentalism is a political movement with a political ideology that considers women inherently inferior in intellectual and moral capacity. What has shadowed Iranian women’s life stems out of dominant masculine fundamentalism that its existence depends on women’s lack of awareness and Education.

The political implications of the determinism that accompanies hard-line fundamentalism state ruling have marginalized women to remain a second class citizen. Understanding the definitions and discourses surrounding masculinity can help in the analysis of how political, economic and cultural inequalities are produced and distributed not only between but also within the genders. In today’s drama of Iranian women’s life only those are entitled to live respectfully that withdraw from their rights in favor of men voluntarily. No arguing, no intellect, no other preoccupations should be projected. When they speak they should say what are expected from.

Women do not speak of their arduous lives unless it becomes unbearable and beyond control. This silence has various reasons in the societies but mostly relates to the conditions of women’s social and individual culture. Families and government orgs veil the major characteristics of violence against women. Due to the lack of education and awareness, women are not fully aware of their individual and social rights. Majority of women tend to surrender and somehow cope with this submission to violence.

The instrumental approach to women under hegemony of fundamentalists is just the same as what they have been convicting the developed countries for. If women are to be instrumentally abused why not where there is some respect for these instruments. The out of date thinking that have brought women only 1% of assets and 10% of social income while they are taking the burden of 2/3 of work load. It is necessary to provide the ground for reducing women’s male dependence, particularly financial dependence by facilitating women’s participation in economic affairs and formal employment. A social support system must be institutionalized to prevent women’s physical and mental vulnerability in hands of abusive men


Moreover the male dominated world of work has widely discriminated women to meaningfully participate in national economy and has driven them to informal zone. High unemployment rate rising to 40 percent is a serious factor in driving restless youth to accept risky offers for work. In this context social deviation has find its way into the younger generation. One factor contributing to the increase in prostitution and the sex slave trade is the number of teen girls who are running away from home. The girls are rebelling against fundamentalist imposed restrictions on their freedom, domestic abuse, and parental drug addictions. Unfortunately, in their flight to freedom, the girls find more abuse and exploitation. This criminal trade is not conducted outside the knowledge and participation of the ruling fundamentalists.

The fundamentalists have added another way to dehumanize women and girls by injecting low self esteem and blocking financial access. For hardliners slavery is acceptable statues for women which makes them to be prone to abuse and compelled to prostitution. Exact numbers of victims are impossible to obtain, but according to an official source in Tehran, there has been a 635 percent increase in the number of teenage girls in prostitution since recent years.

Legal codes tend to legitimize patriarchy by granting men the right to divorce their wives whenever they choose. Women practically can only manage to file for divorce by giving up all their rights to alimony, child support and marriage portion. Women report that in order to have a judge approve a divorce they have to have sex with him. Women who are arrested for prostitution say they must have sex with the arresting officer. There are reports of police locating young women for sex for the wealthy and powerful officials. Exploitation and repression of women are closely associated; both exist where women, individually or collectively, are denied their basic human rights.

Widows particularly are isolated and excluded from healthy socializing due to the fact that polygamy is legally accepted and men who can afford are encouraged to take second wives. Therefore married women are exposed to constant insecurity considering the fact that 62% of women as homemakers are economically dependant on their spouse. As for employment in public sector, the application form of the State agencies such as National TV, are marked with two boxes for marital status of men which indicate the legitimacy of having two wives.

Women can only travel if the father or husband allows and issues legal documentation. While the majority of women are encouraged to stay at home they are deprived from any kind of social security. Men have legal authorization over the choosing of profession of women and housing.
Women are still not allowed to judge and only render judgment as consultant to family courts as they are considered inferior and too emotional in crisis. According to criminal penal law in Iran, a man is exempt from execution even supported for impunity if he kills his wife in case he witnesses her at the time of adultery.


The paradox of criminal liability of women living under institutionalized legal discrimination where the State law considers them irrational, too emotional, second class citizen; the court verdict of execution for women is obviously unjust and inhuman. Women hold responsible for the acts that they have no legitimate control to avoid. While her giving evidence counts half of the man; and questioning her rationality is formulated in the law, the same justification applies for the elimination of execution sentence which would serve the justice to fit her legal responsibility.

Women have no other choice than deconstructing the equilibrium of men and women power relations. Increase of divorce, highest participation in education, self esteem, economic independence against the will of their fathers or husbands are strong indications of real movement where rallying in the street and overt protestation ends up in imprisonment.

Political participation of women in Iran:

4% of members of the Parliament
2.6% of members of the city councils
1.2% of higher ranking positions
5.2% middle management level
11% of total State employees and law firms
Despite the fact that in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education more than 75.3% are women, there is not even one woman placed in higher position
65% of new entrees to the universities are girls as well as 40% of graduated degrees

Source: Iran Statistics Center, 2002


The ratification of CEDAW has been hampered by hardliners due to the fact that the basic human rights of women are not approved. The Constitution can not respond to the demands made by the CEDAW upon signatories as it explicitly calls on member governments to devise penalties for those who perpetrate discrimination against women.

The absence of political will among governments to provide the resources for women’s empowerment has framed international conventions into empty words and lip services. Among the causes that restrict UN agencies to achieve MDG goals a lack of commitment and involvement of the NGOs, private sector and individual citizens, men and women are measured as well as inadequate financial resources. Yet there are not any remarks in MDG on the importance of political participation of women which definitely creates practical results. While within the MDG, there are several emphasizes on health care, however there is little consideration on enforcing quota system or the liability of the states to facilitate women’s participation in high level decision making.

UN agencies as they abide fully to rules and regulations imposed by the autocratic states have not succeeded to eradicate poverty as planned. In a workshop held by UNDP in Iran, civil actor's opinion over UN linkage with the civil society and actors of NGOs was quoted as:

A pessimistic presumption toward civil institutions, a corrupted and complex bureaucracy, biased and selective approach to community associations, unclear and unfamiliar literature and most important of all lack of transparency in performing the programs in addition to their general policy making in Iran were among consentaneous issues. Informed parties also point to programs that these multilateral agencies carried out through direct involvement of certain orgs linked to the government.

In the human rights talks, NGOs were invited to testify facing higher judiciary officials and security officers. Therefore among human right defenders none did show up. The Human Rights Watch criticizes the state for not letting true Representative of women and civil society to participate in the meetings, which in itself is breaching the law. Amnesty Intl and WW that were informed by 15 Iranian groups and Associations abroad pointed that the previous rounds showed breach of Freedom of speech and opinion and press, right to association, and right to “PRIVATE LIFE”. In modern methodology, the penetration into civil society institutions and other civil orgs is the winning plan of action for autocratic regimes. They tend to confiscate for their own good the fruits of civil activities on mass wisdom and manipulate people’s awareness of “REALITY”. International institutions are a good target and are particularly listed in their agenda.

In figuring out what’s going on in this country and in our relations, the picture is filled with lumpens and vigilantes connected with the power players that are imposing, driving, directing, and threatening our historical civility. This is part of the current State strategy to crackdown on civil society and women’s rights organizations which should be guarded against at all cost.
The constant meddling of lumpens in our day to day life and the fear to be harassed has subjugated men and women in a way that fear of scandal or troubles have blocked their normal life. To address violations of our life by vigilant state agents, we must challenge the lumpenism domination and dictatorship that is institutionalized in the ruling structure. Religious fundamentalists by joining lumpen and vigilantes have legitimized terror.
The craving to guard our dignity and respect amongst our fellows do us some disservice in keeping us silent. Camus says something about the innocent being forced by this age to speak out and rebel. The Association of free press has called for all defenders of rights of speech and pen, and other defenders of civil rights and free circulation of information and the families of prisoners of conscience to gather in the Judiciary Complex to further manifest their protest against mass illegal arrests and detention of civil actors, journalists and members of NGOs. The Association pointed to the threatening censorship and imposed articles which by the direct order of the Prosecutor are forced to be published in the Media. The attempt of imposed articles to be published which manipulates the reality and creates a virtual and unrealistic social context is an obvious breach of law specifically marked in Article No 4 and 5 of the Law of Printing Media. This has been universally pointed as the true violation of basic human rights.

Using customs and traditions to legitimize widespread violation of women’s rights to have healthy engagement in their associations and activities with men and women must be seriously raised in judiciary tribunes. Venues should be provided for men and women that allow them to speak and reveal the systematic intrusions into and violations of their very basic human rights.

Despite the fact that insufficient public awareness and a failure to mobilize community-level understanding and support through civil society organizations and the media are included in the list among the causes that thwart progress, UN agency’s organizational structure does not allow effective interference. There must be practical machinery to monitor and implement the areas of concerns raised in international conventions.
Ratification of CEDAW not only would expand the umbrella of legal protection over women, but would allow women of Iran to be part of a global endorsement in recognition for women’s human rights. However, Iran by endorsing the Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights, and the Charter of the United Nations as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that obliges the States to eradicate all discrimination against women is bound to respect and abide all international legal measurements. Policies and information are needed to also make the MDG goals a national priority.
Women’s Networks globally request the authorities to review legislation to assess national policies. The review should include the whole range of legal tools. Various levels of investigation are required to assess critical areas. Women should advocate for removing all discriminatory laws, to unleash all imposed rules and regulations, and respects basic human rights for women.

The public sphere, always inseparable from the concepts of liberty and distinction, is characterized by equality: men are by nature not equal, they require a political institution to become equal, in a word, laws. Only political action can generate equality (Fina Birules, p. 22)

Providing safer environment and security are necessary when advocating for initiation to make changes. To this end, establishing a globally supported Justice Monitoring system can pave the way. Women are underrepresented in the judicial and political system through out the globe.

Access to justice through a globally approved Organization comprising of women Judges, lawyers, activists, academia and politicians elected in the next round of gathering for Beijing +10, is a proposal to achieve practical outcome.
Civil society is a watchdog particularly effective in its manifestation in the media. Distribution of daily news to echo the effect of various abuse and violations against women, the silent victims; addressing women’s issues and raise voices on the government’s accountability to its people must be widely practiced to ensure human rights of women.


Nasrin Azadeh
December 8, 2004





Proactive and participatory monitoring and evaluation

Development projects need to provide documented and unambiguous information about their impact on poverty. Implementation completion reports may effectively assess or systematically document project lessons. Participatory methods for monitoring and evaluation provide rapid assessments, and are used as substitutes for thorough evaluation. But for the most part these methods do not use quantitative methods—stunting efforts to systematically trace a project’s impact on beneficiaries. Projects should include both quantitative and participatory mechanisms for tracking change and project impact. Both quantitative and participatory methods are needed to assess a project’s impact on poverty. The monitoring and evaluation strategy can include random sampling to document the impact of certain components as well as a monitoring, evaluation, and information system that uses ongoing participatory evaluation methods to evaluate inputs and outputs. Projects can rely on systematic monitoring of inputs and outputs flowing through the organizations implementing the project.

Impact Evaluation can address:

• Does the program have impacts on participants
• Are impacts stronger for particular participant groups
• Is the program cost-effective relative to other options
• What are the reasons for a program’s performance
• How can the design or implementation be changed to improve performance

Complementary and ongoing participatory monitoring and evaluation, including a quantitative evaluation design, offer two clear benefits in the fight against poverty.

First, ongoing participatory evaluation enables just-in-time inputs into management decisions at the local and central levels. Such inputs promote better management and more responsive alignment of project inputs to achieve project objectives. The dynamic nature of most projects during implementation requires a responsive mechanism so that inputs are adjusted to changing environments—while also providing a means to verify impact on beneficiaries as it occurs.

Second, the quantitative methods used in household and community surveys are important for assessing a project’s impact and for verifying the determinants of that impact. Such assessment and verification is especially essential during a project’s midterm review, when inputs can be realigned as needed. Such efforts can also provide more information for the next phase of the project.




1 Adapted from IFAD M&E Guide, 2002 download the full version from


sources:

http:// www.dfid.gov.uk/research.
http://www.ifad.org/evaluation/guide/index.htm .
UNDP:SelectingIndicators.http://www.undp.org/eo/documents
/methodology/rbm/Indicators-Paperl.doc
http://www.undp.org/eo/methodologies.htm
Case studies are valuable sources of information and appear on the DFID website (www. dfid.gov.uk) and R4D – DFID’s research portal (www.research4development.info).
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/evaluation/
The World Bank, The Impact Evaluation
Thematic Group, PREMnet., (http://prem)

Female Labor Force Participation In Iran

Female Labor Force Participation in Iran
By: Nasrin Azadeh

The main feature of Iranian labor market is firstly, the low employment ratio and lower participation rate of total labor force in comparison with most of the countries; secondly, the lower than average female labor force participation (FLFP) and their participation in its political process. Low rate of women’s participation affected the total labor force participation where the gap in employment rates amounts to almost six times for men. However during the past 5 years, Iran envisioned major demographic and social changes in terms of labor market participation rate. That is to say, men’s participation rate only grew 1.3 per cent (from 60.8 to 61.6 per cent) while this rate for women, with 31.9 percent relative growth, improved from 9.1 to 12 percent.

Traditionally women are not encouraged to work outside their home but unemployment, underemployment, high inflation, and rising cost of the living has turned the step stone, forcing women to have wider participation in the economy. Studies show that the increasing cost of living requires women to participate in economic activity to overcome poverty. In 1996, each employed person had to provide for the living expenses of 4.2 persons, which would cause the reduction of the level of savings of households hence the national savings.

Female labor force participation FLFP ratio of total participation for age group of 15-64 amounts to only 27 % which is approximately identical to that of Iraq’s 20% or Jordan’s 24%. Labor force gender parity index which is the ratio of the number of women who are economically active to the number of employed men, marks for Iran at 37% points, which is among the lowest in the world compared to East Asia which is 82% and Latin America 55%, (UN Population Prospects 2002; ILO, 1996).

Female labor participation rate is the ratio of the female labor force to the total female working age population. It indicates the proportion of the available female working age population that is willing and able to work, it includes women who are employed as well as unemployed actively seeking employment.


The prospect of increasing economic participation by women are anticipated for Iranian female workers due to rise of level of education, delayed marriages and climb of average marriage age, changes in population age structure, fall in fertility, changes in customary gender roles in households and stereotyping.

At present, Iranian labor market is facing a wave of female workers entering the labor market. Instead, lack of job opportunities warns accelerated rise of unemployment rate. In addition to waste of human capital and disequilibrium, it will create inequities and unfavorable socio-economic situation. Economic power is the foundation of women’s equality and the muscle that helps women to exercise their human rights.

Through a multifaceted approach addressing the underlying factors of the gender pay gap, including sectoral and occupational segregation, education and training, job classifications and pay systems, awareness raising and transparency the Government should aim at pursuing policies to eliminate the gaps.

Since early years of the Revolution, employers substituted away from hiring female workers towards male workers, and about one-third of women workers were dismissed. The women’s employment rate out of total employment fell sharply after the Revolution illustrating U curve diagram for the past three decades. Several researchers alluded to a U-shaped, long-term relationship between female labor force participation rate and economic development.

According to data from the Labour Force Survey the FLFP ratio declined from 12.9% in 1976 to 8.2% in 1986. However, it rose slightly to 9.1% in 1996 but still remained at below its 1976 level. So far the ascending trend of women’s share of total employment in 2001, reached to 15.1 percent. The level is still very low as compared to other developing countries. Despite the low rate of women’s participation, unemployment rate in 2001 for women was equal to 19.5 per cent and 1.5 times more than men’s rate (13 per cent). The unemployment among women aged 15-29 was twice of men in the same age category reaching up to 49.7 % in 2001.

In 2001 women’s participation rate in labor market was 12 percent while this figure for men marked as 61.6 percent. Iran’s FLFP accelerated as of 1990s, reaching 14.8% in 2004, but still remains lowest among all regions (Chamlou, Nadereh, WB, 2004). Notwithstanding the high level of men’s participation, the reason for lowest total participation rate of the country at international level is due to low participation rate of FLFP.

Despite the high fluctuation of the GDP growth during 1978-1989, employment rate did not follow similar fluctuation path. On the basis of the given variables, we will conclude a unilateral relation from growth of GDP with employment rate. In terms of inflation rate, based on conducted studies the direct impact of inflation control policies on women’s employment is negative. In other words, the inflation control means to control one of the influential factors of entering women into the labor market. The inflation encourages women to enter the labor market in particular in low income households.

Economic theory assumes that the effect of female wages on FLFP depends on the relative strengths of substitution and income effects. The substitution effect will be positive since higher female wages will mean more FLFP. The income effect will be negative since as income rises workers desire more leisure and less work. Assuming that the income effect is small, the overall effect of female wages on FLFP will be positive. On the other hand male wages are expected to have a negative influence on FLFP since the higher the wages of the husband the less likely that the wife needs to work.

The last three official decennial censuses show that the shares of wage-related employment for both urban and rural workers have consistently declined between 1976 and 1996, while those of non-wage-related work in both groups have increased. These changes also point to an increase in low-productive occupations requiring little capital. The changes also indicate a substantial increase in the share of family workers in self-employment, and a decline in the share of wages in the average urban family income.

The political balance has given Iran most intrusive employment laws in the world--the 1990 Labor Law (Salehi-Isfahani, 1999). For all practical reasons the law prevents employers from laying off workers without government approval. It is believed that women participation in labor force will maximize social output, which can also justify governments investing more in women’s education, than in men.

The status of labor unions and labor laws should be examined in respect to labor Islamic council’s credibility. Analyzing labor market suggests amendment in labor law for establishment of labor unions representing equal shares for women workers to further encourage economic participation with a right based approach. The fact that female labor force occupying larger share of informal sector and lacking representation in official institutions, makes them vulnerable in terms of raising their issues and strengthening their position. Activating the labor syndicates and joining the ILO’s international labor law, encourages the formation of labor association.

Due to the fact that labor force of men and women can be substituted with each other, the demand for women's labor will depend on two factors: cost of women's labor, and relative productivity of women's labor. The protective articles regarding rights of women and early retirements may hamper employers to employ female workers. Women workers generally work harder than their male counterparts or hold higher skill levels for occupying the same position as men. All the rules which developed with gender sensitivity that have impacts on women’s economic activity are among the official laws affecting the cost of women’s labor as compared with men. Some other factors are cultural and traditional. The society that believes in gender roles and duties indirectly has impact on the cost and productivity of the women in the labor market. Government is covering for some additional cost of maternity leave or nursery in order to support female workers. Public jobs follow a strict pay scale, such as holders of advanced degrees who all are treated equally, leaving no incentive for academics to put more effort on intellectual activities.

One of the significant factors affecting labor supply is the increase of education coverage and early retirement which resulted to decrease of men’s participation (Under 15 and over 50). Results indicate remarkable improvement in the level of education of women and a clearly negative correlation between women’s education and fertility. According to statistics, 22 per cent of female labor force and 7.9 per cent of male labor force hold university degrees. The slight share of compulsory education and further development in household expenditure according to the Statistical Center of Iran and the Central Bank, indicates that the Government bears a considerable share of the cost of education and training of human resources in Iran. In sum, Iranian families are in a position to substantially increase their investment in human capital. Educated parents with fewer children are in a good position to increase the human capital of the next generation of Iranians. The change of age structure of the population is among other parameters that will help with the growth trend of women’s participation rate.

Economists affirm that female awareness and education has a higher social return because of the important role educated women play in promoting well being of others. It is agreed that women participation in labor force will maximize social output, which can also justify governments investing more in women’s education, than in men.

Education has a strong social value for families in Iran, to participate in social activity and gain greater freedom. Iranian girls see university studies as a way to be socially active, postpone marriages, and gain social respect. The considerable increase in girls’ admission in higher education since 1999, as well as high costs of entering into universities led male students not to pursue higher education and leaving the scene in favor of female students. Subsequently, girls in Iran outnumbered boys in the entire university system. Impressive gains by urban women in higher education have drawn significant attention to gender perspective of future changes. This indicates that the main problem in women's labor market regarding shortage of job opportunities is mainly directed at young educated women and is on the accelerating verge.
In fact more than 88.7% of unemployed women in urban areas are those with higher education and in rural area this figure comes up to around 59.4%.


In urban areas the rate of unemployment for educated women raised to 31.5% while for other urban women this figure stays at 18.1%. The unemployment for educated women will see accelerated rise in future. However, women’s share of total employed is approx. 14.8% but their share of newly employed has increased to 24.2%. For both men and women the education of spouse is negatively associated with participation. This is likely reflecting an income effect. However, women whose spouse works are more likely to participate in the labor force (World Bank HH Survey Analysis, 2003).

The outline of investment on education in urban and rural societies is different. In other words, living in the urban or rural societies is one of the factors determining the educational level and literacy of individuals. (Elmi, 2000).

Total industry includes mining and quarrying, oil production, manufacturing, construction, electricity, gas, and water.
Services include wholesale and retail trade, restaurants and hotels; transport, storage, and communications; financing, insurance, real estate, and business services; and community, social, and personal services.


Due to statistical errors most of unemployed women are counted as homemakers; therefore the rate of unemployment and the accurate rate of economic participation are higher than official figures. Majority of unemployed men were previously employed but majority of unemployed women were previously students which indicates rapid growth of women’s economic participation. Evidences show that women job seekers remain unemployed in a longer period of time than men. While 48.3% of newly women workers were previously students and 33.5% were home keepers, only 6.4% were unemployed. This indicates that the numbers of job seekers are much higher than the unemployed.

The rise and fall in fertility are often attributed to the initially pro-natal and later anti-natal policies of the Islamic government (Aghajanian, 1995). In particular, in 1989 the Government launched a highly successful program. During the 8 years of the First and the Second Development Plans (1989-1996), the fertility rate was reduced by more than 50 per cent. (Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, 2003). As a result the annual population growth rate fell to 1.5 per cent in 1996. This is an empirical evidence of the ability of the Government for targeting issues, when collective consensus is reached and organized planning is followed through. In fact, a rapid decline in fertility since 1985 exerted two effects on Iranian labor market. In the short run, the participation rate of women in urban areas increased, and in the long run, due to changes in country’s demographic structure, it will bring about lower labor supply. Particular feature of population decrease in Iran is the relationship between the decline in marital and the rise in marriage age. Later marriages are generally associated with a desire for lower fertility.

At the margin, additional income in the hands of women results in a larger share of the household budget going toward nutrition, health, and education. The greater the woman’s control over household resources, the greater is the share of resources devoted to children.


Changes in age structure, with increasing number of youngsters at their 20s entering the labor force, have extended beyond the demand for labor. In fact, the unemployment rate of women with secondary education level has increased from 20 percent in 1996 to 42.2 percent in 2002 where for younger women aged 20-24 the unemployment reaches as high as 65% which is the highest unemployment rate among different levels.

A major factor affecting the labor supply is accelerated participation of women in recent years. As for educated women, demand deficiency unemployment, stemming out of ineffective Government policies to create jobs and extend economic growth, lacks adjustment with labor supply to establish training skills relevant to market demand. Among those women who do work, few utilize the skills they learned in high school (World Bank, 1996 and 1999). For higher educated women the unemployment rate is twice than men. With monopolizing policies, and limitations set on the private sector, Government policies were unsuccessful to provide sufficient job opportunities. The most pressing challenges facing the government of Iran in the new millennium is the creation of enough jobs to absorb the growing number of its educated women work force. The government’s attempt to gender equity not equality has been articulated at the UN ‘Beijing Plus Five Meeting’ where the country’s gender priorities and challenges were outlined.


Much of the needed policies will come in improvements in the labor market, so that rewards for productive skills increase relative to family ties and educational certificates. The government estimates that to bring down unemployment it would need about 700,000 new jobs every year for the next five years ("the Third Development Plan," Khordad Sunday, Oct. 31, 1999, no. 260, p. 8). In practice, the Government share and its affiliated institutions is running overall economy.

It is important to bear in mind that the productivity of the agricultural sector indicates proper mechanization, whereas, the weak growth of industrial sector was mainly the result of chronic subsidizing policies and lack of flexibility. Consequently, it has brought about the negative effects stemming out of inefficiency in this sector (Farjadi, 2000). The productivity in the agriculture between 1976 and 1996 is considerable and almost equal to hundred per cent, whereas, the productivity of industrial sector has been about 45 per cent.

A glance at the distribution of employed and unemployed women in the urban and rural society in 2001 by education levels, it is observed that 75.5 per cent of employed women in urban areas and 9.8 per cent in rural areas have secondary or higher level of education. These figures indicate that mainly women's employment in villages is in the traditional sectors and at the low education level. In urban societies, the same applies in modern and at high education levels. Availability of schools even in remote villages as well as a new perception of educational system as Islamic - especially favoring fathers - encouraged a noticeable reduction of cultural barriers against girls' education.


Findings from 2001 on the basis of economic sector show that the greatest numbers of agricultural workers were in the first twentieth percentile expense category. The same situation was observed in the industry and mines sector. Workers in both of these sectors had the lowest share in the most prosperous tenth percentiles. Capacity building and empowerment of the poor instead of charity approach, effective macro economic policies for long term, are considered comprehensive target planning for subsidies.

Evidences show, during the time period of 1976-2001, women’s participation rate in rural areas has continuously been more than urban areas. Except for 1986, rural women relatively have entered into the labor market more than urban women. This can be as a result of higher share of female and male student in urban areas.

Rural women participation will increase from 14.3% in 2002 to 14.9% in 2007, (the total of 1.37 million). In the last 5 years, we were faced with the reduction of rural women’s unemployment rate in contrary with the increasing number of urban women’s unemployment. However, increase of rural women’s participation growth is mostly due to optimization of statistical methods. Thus, it seems that the overestimation or the underestimation of unpaid female laborers without wages in all age groups has brought about critical changes in the rate of rural women’s participation in the respective period, further to the results of the method of questioning. In 1976, 1986, 1986 and 2001 respectively, 55, 44, 41 and 55.8 per cent of rural employed women were family workers without wages.

The Urban women’s unemployment rate has risen from 12.5 percent to 28.1 percent and the rural women’s unemployment rate has decreased from 14.4 percent to 11.1 percent.

Despite the reduction of the unemployment rate of the rural women, in recent 5 years, the unemployment rate of 20-29 year-old rural women had significant increase in this period. The rate of educated unemployed women in rural areas is 43.2% while the rate of unemployment for other rural women is only 5.3%. The impact of female unemployment on FLFP is negative and highly significant. The hidden unemployment computations indicate that the urban female unemployment rate is underestimated and the discouraged-worker effect for women is substantial.

During 1976 - 2002, the women’s marriage age rose from 19.7 to 23.5. Following these changes, the percentage of female-head households also has increased from 7.3 per cent to 9.4 per cent (the unofficial figure is much higher). It is expected that these trends to be continued in the future.

The participation rate of the divorced women at all times had the highest rate nearly as much as non married and non-students. The reason is less home duties, free time, and urge for social activity, independency and push for earning an income. It appears that unmarried women face less cultural limitation and constraints in the family and social environment to enter into the labor market. women mostly leave their job when married, however for those who do work less time is allocated to perform housekeeping due to new technologies of household appliances allows free time to participate in economic activity.

In the past five years, subsequent to the reduction of the share of public sector, the private sector expanded gradually. About 70 percent of employed women in the public sector are involved in social services (including education and health). Despite the small number of women’s employment in the business sector, the share of the women’s employment of the total employed women has increased from 1.9 percent in 1996 to 2.8 percent in 2000. The share of women workers in total manufacturing has been 21.3, 3.7 and 7.9 percent for 1976, 1986 and 1996, respectively. (Etemad Moghaddam, Fatemeh, 1998 and Bagherian, Mitra, 1990).

While less than 2 percent of employed women in the industry sector in 1996 had higher education, more than 45 percent in other services were highly educated. Despite the fact that it seems the share of women of total employed in recent 25 years has not had a tangible change, the nature of employment has found a major change. It has shifted from the illiterate and rural women to the urban educated women. Female labor participation is an entering point into the social security system.

The majorities of the female managers are in education field or are in fact the principal of girls’ schools which in this country necessarily are recruited among women. The ratio of employed women in the group of legislators, high ranking officials and managers (omitting education sector) are less than 0.6 percent indicating a vertical discrimination in the women’s labor market.

In the urban and rural regions, the annual average income of men compared to women is 2.2 and 8.1 times respectively. The reduction of income gap of men and women with the increase of education level is due to the fact that the growth opportunity for women and men is not the same, the income discrimination is greater in non-wage earnings, and most of all the easier access to capital and land for men has a significant impact on the income rate. Women may have relatively little freedom to reinvest their income in labor saving equipment or other technology. The laws of inheritance and the policies on micro credits have limited the access of women to financial resources. Because women are less mobile than men, banks are harder for them to reach; more women than men are illiterate, making documentation difficult, and majority of women lack collateral.

In addition, since women have been less present in the economic sector, their entrepreneurship power and skills are less improved. All these factors also make greater income gap between men and women in the traditional part of the economy. In the higher education the gap is created gradually, through fewer opportunities of job promotion and additional advantages available for men. The fact that men have monopolized linking and lobbying with high ranking power players has limited access of women to higher positions and made it exclusive to men; or at best through middle men. Stereotypical prejudgements about female emotional and behavioural characteristics preclude the progress of women in the organizational hierarchy.

Statistics indicate the limitation of women’s job diversity or horizontal job discrimination is prevalence in Iran. Main activities where women are employed include agriculture, textile, education, health and social work. The 28.3 percent of employed women are working in textile sector, 26 percent in education, 16.6 percent in agriculture, 6.7 percent in health and social aid while only 22.3 percent of women are active in other sectors. As for men only 16 percent of the employed are working in mentioned sectors and 84 percent are active in the other sectors.

The actual discrimination in the labor market can lead to the waste of human capital in the long term. Some consider the existence of two relatively separate labor market for men and women as an important and determining factor of lower wages. Since women’s job options are limited and there is massive influx of demand for “female oriented” jobs, they can be termed as “croweded”. According to the model of “concentration”, the wage level is lower due to the fact that women have to compete for over few numbers of professions. Moreover, women do not compete with men to work in large number of jobs that are recognized as “male oriented”. This is effective in keeping the wages high for these professions. From vertical job discrimination, with regards to the distribution of employees in the main job groups in 1996, it was concluded that 22 per cent of women employees have higher education as compared to only 7.9 per cent of men. The reason for this is that women could only occupy positions when their skill and education is considerably higher than their male counterparts.

If no structural changes occur in the economic prospect, and the privatization policy along with downsizing of the Government continues, the private sector by providing services that usually demands little investment and has a quick return in short term can create appropriate job opportunities for the young women.

The highest growth of employment in recent years is in private sector and the lowest rate is in public sector, this is due to downsizing the government institutions and privatization policies. The highest growth of employment for men and women, in urban and rural areas is in industry sector, opposed to previous years which were mainly in service sector.



Policy Recommendations:

Revised rules and regulations: Reform of civil law, labor, and social security laws towards gender equality; conducting tax exemption to promote women’s handicraft export; allocation of annual budget to promote women’s economic activity and employment; revision of media’s programs for improving the public belief on women’s capacity and equality and promoting Government coverage for additional women’s employment costs imposed on employers in private sector

Strengthening health and security in work environments, modernizing and enhancing the information sharing technologies in labor market, revision of wages, social security and developing private and small factories are positive steps to be taken in this sector.

Credit facilities and investment: support for agricultural investments, transitional industries with an emphasis on rural women’s participation in non-agricultural sectors; less complicated bank facilities; elimination of asset guarantee to be replaced by skillfulness

Employment Centers: support for non-governmental job finding and consulting centers for women; increasing job opportunities for women; establishment of consulting and responsive centers regarding managerial, marketing, raw material purchases

Promoting entrepreneurship: policies to encourage female elites and entrepreneurs; improving the tourist industry and small business for women’s participation in food or textile industry; providing support for women NGOs; removal of gender inequalities in decision making process are recommended to further improve women’s participation. Initiating programs with participation of the official bodies to promote the capacity building of female workers and women entrepreneurs are vital issues to be incorporated in the future planning.


Encouraging employers: promoting further employment of female workers by reducing tax and insurance rate of the employers’ share; support for women cooperatives particularly in processing industries, in water and agricultural domains, are among the positive steps to eliminate gender discrimination in economic participation.

Nasrin Azadeh
September 25, 2004
Independent Researcher/Iran

Trends of Poverty in Iran with Gender perspective

Trends of Poverty in Iran

Introduction

Iran has been seriously confronted with combined socio economic problems, for more than twenty years. Among major factors of growing poverty in the 80s is the high population growth rates reaching to 3.9% (3.2% from natural increase and 0.7% from immigration of Afghans and Iraqis) the revival of the national family planning program which was delivered through a nationwide network of primary health care facilities with the aid of vast numbers of trained local women public health promoters. Currently Iran’s population growth rate dropped to 1.2 percent a year. More over, as the system of the government, it is governed by the policies which are not based solely on economic decision, short term economic policies, high inflation (between 20 to 40 %), small share of private sector in national economy (15 %), and institutionalized monopolizing behavior have made economic participation for private entities particularly for women difficult and has pushed women to informal and unprotected economy. The short term governmental economic policies have brought uncertainty and high risk for the private sector and individuals to be active in economy and carry out their entrepreneurial inititive.

The other major factor impediment to economy is the low labor productivity level and growth rate coming from inconsistent socio economic policies and management as well as over reliance on rent structures rather than hard work and value added. Sustained high levels of inequality, poverty and vulnerability for a large proportion of the population has been the result of allocating lion shares of public budget to State owned foundations and corporations. Significant differentials between private and social costs and benefits along with continuing to subsidize consumer goods instead of investment on industrial and development infrastructures and supporting competitive private sector to promote the growth are among the key issues. Subsidies, which have been both vast and ranging but untargeted, have resulted in an economic distortion. The rich are continuously gaining more than the poor. In the subsidies policies, we come to this conclusion that lowest percentile benefit only 3.8 per cent, while tenth percentile benefits as much as 20.5 per cent. Therefore top percentile benefits 5.4 times of the lowest percentile. This method has resulted in the smuggling of subsidized goods to neighboring countries through illegal actions. Excessive rent seeking and short term behavior and over reliance on oil exports revenues which is the source of 80% of the country’s export income is also among factors that enforce unjust asset distribution through out the country. Disaggregated data are even more revealing of the discrepancies. The HDI shows high dispersion amongst provinces while the gender adjusted HDI shows an even higher dispersion.

The low employment ratio and lower participation rate of total labor force in comparison with most of the countries; in addition to the lower than average female labor force participation (FLFP) and their participation in its political process are two key characteristics of Iranian labor market. Low rate of women’s participation affected the total labor force participation where the gap in employment rates amounts to almost six times privileged for men. Stereotyping and limited job options for employment in service and education sectors are among socio/cultural factors hampering women’s wider participation in economy. The society should be able to accept women in trade, women in the police force, etc. Otherwise, their opportunities would be restricted to teaching, nursing, clerical work, in lower positions, and to women exclusively with top levels of university education. Giving women equal opportunities to contribute to economic life would significantly enhance the growth prospects and economic productivity of the countries. Women are also active in jobs such as hairdressing, baking cookies,, mass production of handicrafts and sewing. However, these jobs are marginalized to informal sector and as such, no official statistics exist for a quality research. Middle class, lower income groups, urban and rural women, who are engaged in these activities, do not have means and machinery to organize their associations or unions. One of the reasons Iranian women engage mostly in informal economic activities, is that they can combine it with their routine household duties. On the other hand, often the income is higher than official wage and women are not restricted to be present in an office for long hours.

Rise of Level of Education
World Bank analysis reveals that if the female labor force participation rate increased in accordance with education levels and age structure, household earnings could rise by as much as twenty-five percent. For many families, this is the only way to step out of poverty vicious circle, which demonstrates the instrumental role that women play in lifting their families out of poverty and influencing the larger socio-economic climate.
The prospect of increasing economic participation by women are anticipated for Iranian female workers due to rise of level of education, delayed marriages and climb of average marriage age, changes in population age structure, decrease of fertility rate, changes in customary gender roles in households and stereotyping. Studies show that the increasing cost of living requires women to participate in economic activity to overcome poverty.

The slight share of compulsory education and further development in household expenditure according to the Statistical Center of Iran and the Central Bank indicates that the Government bears a considerable share of the cost of education and training of human resources in Iran. However due to structural constraint of private sector to meaningfully engage in national economy the massive brain drain has brought a total loss for the government in its investment in education. Moreover the recent accelerated trend of poverty among literate headed households in different levels of education can be associated with over supply and the rising of unemployment among educated women. On the supply side in recent years, the increase in the female participation rate and the rapid improvement of the educational profile of the labor force brought in to the labor market a large number of mostly young, well qualified female workers. These developments took place at a time of significant restructuring and slow down in the pace of economic growth in Iran and as a result the unemployment rate will likely continue to increase. On the other hand the analysis of poverty trend on the basis of literacy of the head of household indicates that illiterate women in both villages and cities have always been exposed to poverty much more than educated women. In 1991, 47.5 per cent of illiterate women were head of poor households. This ratio has been 72.2 and 27.8 per cent respectively for women in urban and rural areas.
In urban areas the rate of unemployment for educated women raised to 31.5% while for other urban women this figure stays at 18.1%. The unemployment for educated women will see accelerated rise in future due to lack of effective job creation policies.Women’s share of total employed is approx. 14.8% but their share of most recent employed has increased to 24.2%. The government estimates that to bring down unemployment it would need about 700,000 new jobs every year for the next five years. Yet employment creation has not been sufficient to meet the rapid increase in the labor force, inflation is high and rising again, price subsidies and controls continue to hinder economic efficiency, and structural impediments for private sector development remain unchanged.





Women household heads

The census in Iran is concerned with family units and not individuals. Therefore in the majority of conducted studies, poverty among female headed households is analyzed as women’s poverty which has multi–dimensional aspects. In all developing countries women’s poverty is of chronic type, stemming out of social and cultural factors entanglement. The situation of women, and in particular the 1.3 million women headed households (Iran Statistics Centre 1997), is particularly vulnerable. Statistics further indicate that 9% of all women bearing the burden as head of households. Labor regulations and family laws in Iran reinforce the traditional family model, making women financially, legally and socially dependent on men. The responsibility of male figure of the household as the sole bread winner is clearly marked in the Constitution. In 1996, each employed person had to provide for the living expenses of 4.2 persons, which would cause the reduction of the level of savings of households hence the national savings. On the other hand, the commonly held belief that in situations of unemployment women would take away jobs from men was not confirmed by the researchers. Evidences point out to job opportunities created by economically active women who work out of home while they use other services to fulfill their homemaking tasks.

The majority of the researches have concentrated their attempts to determine poverty line based on income (expenditure) poverty line due to scarcity of data. One of the restrictions of statistics is that, expenditures are determined and defined collectively for the household, so there is no information about the allocation of expenditures among family members, men, woman and children. In this regard, the verification of poverty and deprivation among women in families is not possible. Considering this limitation for the verification of poverty based on gender, the gender of the family bread-winner is the measure and the degree of poverty among families whose bread–winners is a woman (women headed households), has been analyzed in accordance with economic and social and geographical situation.

Women household heads had a consistently higher percentage of poverty than men; however the gap between the two groups recently decreased over time. The gender sensitive poverty analysis shows that being a woman as head of household increases the possibility of falling in absolute poverty. In 1991, 1996 and 2001; 45.4per cent, 52 per cent and 17.5 per cent of all female headed households successively did not earn the minimum levels and ended up living in absolute poverty. While the same figures for men were 25.4 per cent, 16.1 per cent, and 14.8 per cent. The results of sampling indicate descending trend of poverty among women compared to men, however, the share of poor women has always been larger. In the period 1991 – 1996, poverty among women had increased but during the next interval (1996 – 2001) the situation of female headed households did in fact substantially improve.

In an economic analysis the high percentage of poverty among aged head of households, has been regarded as an indicator of inefficiency of relief and insurance organizations, as well as social security systems - despite having sufficient budgets - and lack of optimal use of their savings. Female labor participation is the only entering point into the social security system of the country. The policies which increase inflation can also be highly significant in the increase of this ratio and worsening the intensity of poverty.


The health dimension

In Health while Iran has a well performing basic health system and good health indicators, it still has a high rate of childhood malnutrition. In recent researches the widespread issue of iron deficiency among women and girls - and 2.5 Cm reduction of the height of children particularly girls were revealing the issue of malnutrition.

Women’s life expectancy increased by ten years since 1980, largely due to better healthcare and a fall in maternal mortality. Yet gains in women's health and education, with as much as 65 percent of university students being female, have not translated into commensurate gains in employment. Even though there was great success to avail education for girls and women as well as the growth of literacy, creating jobs and promoting employment opportunities for educated at all levels is indispensable for elimination of poverty among women. Based on the 2002 census (Statistical Center of Iran) results, the size of the average urban household in 2001 was 4.47 persons. The average number of employed persons per family was 1.1 persons and the average number of income earners was 1.4 persons.
Based on the latest statistics in 1991, about 27.4 per cent of sample families were living under poverty line. This ratio had decreased to 18.8 per cent in 1996 followed by 15.3 per cent in 2001. As the result, annually, an average of 5.6 per cent of families has been able to get disentangled from the vicious cycle of absolute poverty. The pace of poverty reduction in the first period can be attributed to the post – war conditions. Indicators under study relevant to health and medical and education endorse slight improvement in poverty reduction and anti discrimination policies while in job creation and housing the improvement acquired was negative.

Increasing the economic capacity of women has undoubtedly been a key factor in improving their status. However, as men are unwilling to take on traditionally female roles, the women are overburdened. The family arrangements are still quite unequal in terms of sharing the burden of housework and child care. Studies show value added for food preparation usually carried out by women in the period 1984 – 1995, could increase GDP by 10 per cent. Using the method in which value added is accounted as work of equivalent value and according to cost substitute - the figure for food preparation would come up to 15.4 per cent of GDP in 1994.




Poverty in Rural/Urban Household

Women in the agriculture sector are economically under privileged due to the fact that 54 percent of employed women in this sector are family and non-wage workers (Statistical Center of Iran, 2001). In rural areas, research is needed to find the causes that women often earn less than men in agriculture and what factors lead women to be less productive. Women farmers often find it difficult to adopt productivity enhancing their access to technology. Traditionally they are less likely to demand rights to land and control over their asset. The Statistical Center’s annual samplings in the last decade show lower living standards in rural areas compared to urban. The annual average gross expenditures of rural to urban household have been 55.4, 60.1 and 61.5 per cent successively, in the years, 1991, 1996 and 2001. As a result, the household expenditures for rural family stand for 55 to 65 per cent of that of urban areas on average.

The ratio of rural population of the country has decreased from 42 per cent in 1991 to 38 per cent in 1996 and continued to decline to 36 per cent in 2001. The increase of the poverty percentage among jobless heads of household in urban areas compared to rural areas resulted from the immigration of the young men from villages to cities in the expectation of finding a better job and income. Due to the fact that they are unsuccessful at the early stages to find a job, this trend will entail the increase of number of the poor unemployed. The poverty index in rural and urban societies implies that poverty has decreased in urban areas from 36.6 (1991) to 17.6 (1996) and further decreased to 15.2 per cent in 2001. The mentioned descending trend also holds true in rural areas. Poverty in rural areas droped to 20 per cent and later to 15 percent in 1996 and 2001 respectively from initial figure of 18.2 per cent in 1991.

In the agricultural sector, the level of poverty among female household heads was higher than the average relative poverty levels among men and women. According to data, women labour force in agricultural sector is estimated around 40 per cent. Studies show more than 82.5 per cent of rural women do participate in some sort of income generation activities at home or work place. Only 51 per cent of rural women generate income, meaning 49 per cent of women are not able to earn income whether or not they participate in economic activities. They are considered as housewives in categorization of the Iran Statistic Centre.

Dividing the percentage of poverty among jobless to urban and rural, certain verifying points emerge for further analysis. The percentage of poverty in urban and rural areas among families with unemployed head of households in 1991 was 48.6 and 24.6 per cent respectively. These rations changed to 27.9 and 31.8 in 1996 and 2001 in urban areas, whereas the percentage of poverty in rural areas with unemployed head reached 28.3 and 26.4 per cent. On the other hand, among employed household heads in urban areas the percentage of poverty was 32.3, 14.2, and 14.8 per cent respectively in 1991, 1996 and 2001, whereas the same figures for villages were 16.7, 15.7 and 13 per cent successively.

The percentage of women in the first tenth percentile is between 27 per cent and 36 per cent while in the ninth and tenth tenth percentiles, it does not exceed 7 per cent. In most cases, the share of women in latter two tenth percentiles is between three and four per cent.

Approximately 31 per cent of urban homemakers and 54 per cent of rural homemakers were in the first twentieth percentile. The significant gap between urban and rural dwellers can be due to the greater opportunities for urban households to rely on other active (those who are employed) members in the family. In fact, the number of employed persons per household is the key factor for escaping the poverty.

The urban unemployed identify themselves as unemployed, yet they have a variety of short-term opportunities in small-scale or informal commerce, transport of passengers and other financial activities at their disposal, which probably enables them to secure their livelihood to a certain extent. Such opportunities are much less available in rural areas. The same situation holds also true regarding homemakers.

Examining the economic activities of household heads by economic sector reveals that employed persons in the agricultural sector hold the highest share in the first and second tenth percentiles (approximately 32 per cent). Employees in the industry and mines sector compose approximately 25 per cent of this twentieth percentile. Employees in these two sectors are in a more precarious situation than those in the other sectors. Agricultural workers compose 10 per cent and industrial and mines workers compose 16 per cent in the last twentieth percentile.

In the service sectors, those who work as financial intermediaries or “middlemen” are the most prosperous. Approximately 91 per cent are in the fourth and fifth twentieth percentiles and only 9 per cent are in the second twentieth percentile. Employees in the construction sector compose 14 per cent of the first twentieth percentile and they have similar compositions in the twentieth percentiles that follow. As the twentieth percentiles increase in prosperity, the share of employees in the trade sector increases as well. The same make-up can be observed in the transportation and communications sector. The share of these sectors in the upper twentieth percentiles is 28 per cent and 29 per cent respectively.


Access to Financial Resources

The laws of inheritance and the policies on micro credits have limited the access of women to financial resources as banks do not promote lending without collateral. Women’s lack and poorly enforceable rights over property in the labor market and in the home means that they are more vulnerable to poverty than men. The contingent nature of women’s rights over resources and property, often secured through family or marriage ties, means that even women in wealthy households are vulnerable to poverty, especially in the event of separation, divorce, widowhood or other household breakdown.

Because women are less mobile than men, banks are harder for them to reach; more women than men are illiterate, making documentation difficult, and majority of women lack collateral. In addition, since women have been less present in the economic sector, their entrepreneurship power and skills are less improved. All these factors also make greater income gap between men and women in the traditional part of the economy. In the higher education the gap is created gradually, through fewer opportunities of job promotion and additional advantages available for men. The fact that men have monopolized linking and lobbying with high ranking power players has limited access of women to higher positions and made it exclusive to men; or at best through middle men. Stereotypical prejudgements about female emotional and behavioural characteristics preclude the progress of women in the organizational hierarchy.

Families who are engaged in small businesses have increased their income, are less dependent on government assistance, and have more secured food. Through the marketing research, poor producers, men and women who would like to be engaged in small businesses should be able to get knowledge and professional advice on effective business management, community funds establishment, and better access to local and regional markets.

The effectiveness of the social security programs considering variety of risks, efficiency, and coverage are under question. For instance, old age pension per capita for a 5 members household and more in support services in 2001, was between Rls. 60.000 and Rls. 150.000, which is concerned only to cover less than 20 per cent of the basic household needs.

In general, social ills such as smuggling, drug addiction, escape of young girls from home, prostitution, selling body parts, etc. are drastically increasing. In issues regarding drug abuse, the problem can be reviewed from two aspects: demand and supply. Demand for narcotics comes largely from the unemployed, deprived and powerless whose share of the addict population is much higher than their share in the society at large. Escaping from decay, despair and deprivation is considered as the main cause of seeking relief in drugs.

Prostitution and trafficking of women with few exceptions, is initially associated with poverty and deprivation even when there is consent. Studies in and about street girls, teenage prostitution and women smuggled to Dubai demonstrate this stark reality. Similarly, youth delinquency, increase in street children and child labour (presently about 550,000 children below 15 working in Iran) are undoubtedly related to poverty, deprivation and broken homes.

Of crucial importance, though often ignored by officials, is the fact that, increase in vulnerabilities and social upheavals emerges in the wake of poverty compounded by injustice, unfair distribution of income and discrimination. Structural adjustment policies for more than a decade have resulted in severe inequality of income and wealth, increased the likelihood of widespread financial abuse, and further cemented the lack of democratic controls over management. Together they have contributed terribly to social problems and the regrettable state of affairs.

In conclusion, ineffectiveness of the social security system and its supportive programs are less due to scarcity of financial resources and mostly are the outcome of improper budget allocation, mismanagement and lack of systemic approach. In this respect, ignorance of NGOs in relief and aid delivery is significant which has to be seriously addressed.

One of the priorities in the country’s future macro-economic policies will be paying greater attention to policies that stimulate economic growth on the condition that deprived and poor households can derive benefits from such growth.


Reducing Barriers to Economic Opportunities

Women’s economic participation is considered one of the elements of the sustainable development therefore endogenous, durable and new development plans tend to attract women as a partner in production activities. Economists affirm that female awareness and education has a higher social return because of the important role educated women play in promoting well being of others. It is agreed that women participation in labor force will maximize social output, which can also justify governments investing more in women’s education, than in men. At the margin, additional income in the hands of women results in a larger share of the household budget going toward nutrition, health, and education. The greater the woman’s control over household resources, the greater is the share of resources devoted to children (WB, Gen & Dev Report, 2003, 72).

Target planning for providing subsidies, in addition to capacity building and empowerment of the poor instead of providing livelihood, along with effective macro economic policies for long-term are recommended for future to alleviate poverty. The review of the legislative environment to ensure that women benefit from equal rights granted under the constitution; a supportive infrastructure such as better child care, transport, water and telecommunications to facilitate women's participation in the public sphere; continued attention to education, particularly to provide women with relevant market skills; and reform of labor laws and regulations to reflect the new demands and development model and the need for job creation in the private sector particularly promoting entrepreneurship among women.

Promoting entrepreneurship: policies to encourage female elites and entrepreneurs are the key to eradicate poverty, in addition to improving the tourist industry and small business for women’s participation in food or textile industry; providing support for women NGOs; engagement in innovative projects for environment preservation; removal of gender inequalities in decision making process are recommended to further improve women’s status.


NASRIN AZADEH



References:

1) UNDP Poverty Report, 2003
2) Dr. Parvis Piran, (2000), Welfare Science University publishing, (Poverty in Iran: 43)
3) Saiid Madani, Welfare Science University publishing, (Poverty in Iran: 279)
4) MPO, Management and Planning Org, Poverty Report, 2003
5) World Bank, Gender and Development in the Middle East and North Africa, Women in the Public Sphere
6) Iranonline.com, Iran economy
7) Gender Analysis of Labor Market in Iran, Ladan Norouzi, 2003, Women Research Journal: 9
8) Iran Statistical Center Report, 2003
9) Dr. Fariborz Raiisdana, Poverty and Social Deviation, University of Allameh Tabatabaii, 2003
10) Alireza Rajaii, Poverty Analysis in Iran, University of Tehran, 2003