When Being a Woman Is a Crime, and Earning Bread Is a Battle
As daily living conditions worsen for the general public and state repression intensifies, the situation for female heads of household, one of the most vulnerable segments of Iranian society, continues to deteriorate on all fronts.
The number of women who are the sole providers for their families is on the rise. These women often take on this role due to divorce, the death of a spouse, or their refusal to marry under the discriminatory laws that govern family and society in Iran. In doing so, they bear the household’s full economic and child-rearing responsibilities. They face mounting economic, social, and psychological challenges along this path. Additionally, they are deprived of even the most basic social protection and are often subjected to hidden forms of violence.
Statistical Overview
As with many other topics under the clerical regime, accurate statistics regarding female heads of households are deliberately obscured. According to the Donya-e-Eqtesad website (May 3, 2025), the total number of such women in Iran exceeds 6 million, with half of them lacking any form of insurance. Government-run media occasionally report on the annual increase in this vulnerable population.
This increase stems from several factors: economic hardship, poverty, unemployment, or the inability of male partners to provide financial support—often leading to divorce or male migration. Moreover, fatalities from accidents, state-led killings and arrests, and the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years have all contributed to the rising number of women left to support households on their own.
Many young women also opt out of marriage because of the archaic and discriminatory laws of the clerical regime and the absolute authority granted to men in the family structure. While this may shield them from some forms of violence and restriction, it places a heavy financial and emotional burden on them instead.
Challenges and Harms Facing Female Heads of Household
Economic and Employment Pressure
Many women heading households lack access to formal employment and are forced into “uninsured, unstable, or low-income jobs,” such as domestic work, small-scale shopkeeping, or street vending. Their primary concern is earning enough to cover basic living expenses and their children’s education.
Workshops in sewing, carpet weaving, packaging, and retail—common industries that employ female heads of household—often do so precisely because these women are so desperate that they accept extremely low wages.
On January 16, 2025, the state-run Khabar Online website reported that the minimum monthly cost of living for households in small cities had reached 28 million tomans (about USD 665), a figure that continues to rise steadily.
Gholamreza Taj-Gardoon, head of the Iranian regime’s Parliamentary Budget and Planning Committee, recently stated: “In a carpet-weaving workshop in one town, 40 to 50 elderly women were working. Their hands were swollen and wounded, and they were earning only between 1.9 and 3 million tomans (USD 45–70) per month, with no insurance.” (State-run Bazaar Analysis website – June 7, 2025)
These occasional glimpses into their lives—often revealed during political infighting among officials—only represent the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the struggles of female heads of households.
Comprehensive Vulnerability
In addition to poverty, female heads of household face physical, psychological, and social risks. Soudabeh Najafi, a member of Tehran’s City Council, has warned that limited job opportunities and the absence of social support leave these women vulnerable to issues such as anxiety, depression, and a deep sense of abandonment.
Living in deprived or marginalized areas—where urban services and access to healthcare, education, and cultural centers are minimal—exposes them to even greater harm. (State-run IRNA news agency – June 8, 2025)
The physical toll is also severe. In a recent session at the Iranian regime’s Welfare Organization regarding female heads of household, Javad Hosseini, head of the organization, reported that 53,000 elderly women living alone had been identified across the country.
Maryam Khakrangin, acting head of the organization’s Women and Family Office, stated that cancer is increasingly prevalent among female heads of household, explaining: “This is to be expected because vulnerable populations tend to delay seeking treatment.”
She added: “The situation may become critical since these women are responsible for 212,000 children, and if something happens to them, we’ll be facing a wave of orphaned children.”
Regime Overthrow: The Only Path to Salvation
Female heads of household are a stark symbol of the clerical regime’s systemic oppression of the Iranian people. Fully addressing the hardships they face would require extensive discourse. Like the rest of the population, these women live on one hope alone: the overthrow of the clerical regime, because under its rule, no improvement in their circumstances is conceivable.
