When it comes to the job market in Iran, there is a staggering gender gap. The unemployment rate for women is more than double that of men. Women make up only 16 percent of the total workforce, and hold fewer than 20 percent of managerial positions. In many sectors of the economy, women are also the first to be laid off.
In recent weeks, the nationwide uprising, security crackdown and Internet blackout have made conditions worse for women.
Stagflation has led struggling businesses to cut costs by firing staff. The three-week nationwide Internet shutdown — following the protests of December and January, which were brutally repressed — has inflicted severe damage on sectors of the economy that rely on the internet for sales and marketing.
At the same time, the collapse of the currency, the growing risk of military conflict with the United States, slowing economic growth, and a continuing energy shortage — compounded by deep structural weaknesses in the economy — have sharply reduced overall economic activity nationwide.
Under these pressures, unemployment and layoffs have soared further, and data indicates that women have once again been the biggest casualty.
The government crackdown has hit a number of sectors, including coffee shops.
According to Ali Zafari, vice president of the Tehran Coffee Shop Owners Union, 25 percent of cafes have closed in the past three months. Conditions have deteriorated since the protests, and the union’s attempts to support cafe owners has produced only limited results.
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In Mashhad, capital of the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi, Mahtab and her sister own and manage a cafe that they have now decided to shut down. Mahtab told Kayhan Life that it was the most painful decision of her life, but the deep recession and mounting losses had left them with no hope of sustaining the business.
Mahtab explained that conditions have worsened considerably since the protests.
“A heavy security atmosphere prevails, and daily life has not returned to normal,” she said. “Cafes are under especially strict surveillance. Beyond routine inspections, security forces also visit in plainclothes.”
“Cafe owners have heard that authorities are trying to identify individuals whose images were captured by CCTV or security cameras during the protests. At the same time, they fear that cafes could become spaces for organizing” demonstrations, Mahtab explained.
She said people no longer felt inclined to spend time in cafes. Customer numbers had dropped sharply, and those who did come usually asked to take away their coffees rather than sit and drink it in the café.
Mahtab explained that because of the downturn in business, she had informed the four employees working at the café that their employment would end on March 21, the start of the new Iranian calendar year.
“The business has already been running at a loss, and by any practical measure it should have closed in late February,” she explained. Yet Mahtab could not bring herself to deprive her staff of an income just before the Iranian New Year, so they decided to keep the cafe open until late March despite the financial strain.
The situation is not unique to their cafe in Mashhad.
According to statistics provided to Kayhan Life by trade activists, roughly two thousand cafe workers — including professional baristas — have lost their jobs in recent weeks. The layoffs have intensified after the January protests and the tightening security measures imposed on the trade.
Female baristas face fewer alternative job opportunities than their male counterparts, even after being laid off.
In an interview with Kayhan Life, Paria, a 24-year-old student, detailed her three years of professional barista experience, noting that she had worked part-time in cafes since age 17. She lost her job in the third week of January when the cafe manager, visibly distressed, reduced staff to keep his long-established cafe in eastern Tehran from closing.
Paria said she was pessimistic about finding new work. A male colleague of the same age was laid off at the same time, but secured a job as a motorcycle courier within two days, and is now also working for Snapp, an online taxi service.
“Although barista work was his trained profession, he was able to move quickly into other jobs,” Paria explained. “He was able to secure work almost immediately, while I — simply because I am a woman — face far fewer job opportunities.”
“I have made every effort to find employment, even something that would begin after Nowruz (the Iranian New Year, beginning March 21). Yet despite all my efforts, there has been no news, no offer, nothing,” she added.
Paria explained that no one was making exceptional or extra hires right now.
“Most employers appear to be holding back, waiting for the uncertainty around the prospect of war to resolve. At the same time, economic strain has left many businesses either unwilling — or simply unable — to grow or bring on new employees,” she concluded.
Layoffs have become widespread. In the tourism industry, the 12-day war between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran in June 2025 shattered what little job security remained, pushing many workers into unemployment.
Women in this sector report that when companies decide who to let go, their names rise first on the dismissal lists.
Faranak, who spent 15 years working in airline offices, has been unemployed since late January. She told Kayhan Life that she lost her job “under the shadow of war and the internet shutdown.”
“Compared to previous years, airline ticket sales have collapsed,” she explained. “Many people simply cannot afford air travel, tours, or vacations anymore. Others no longer want to fly at all. In a country whose airspace has been violated and that lives under the constant threat of war, people are afraid to board planes.”
“Even land tours have stopped selling — whether by train or by bus. After the January protests, when the internet was cut again for three weeks and never properly restored, several of my colleagues and I were dismissed,” she said.
Faranak is single and lives alone.
“I am effectively the head of my own household. No one covers my expenses. Yet our employer chose to retain married staff and men. When businesses operate in survival mode, they make unjust decisions and dress them up as a practical necessity.”
“For many of my female colleagues, it is humiliating to hear a manager say that downsizing is unavoidable, that Mr. So-and-so must stay because he supports a family, and that we, therefore, must leave,” she added.
Faranak says she is fluent in English and French and has working knowledge of Spanish and Arabic. She is educated, has spent years building her career, taken professional courses, and steadily expanded her knowledge and skills. Yet, for reasons beyond her control — or her manager’s — she has suddenly been forced to stay home.
“What hurts most is that my qualifications and dedication were ignored, and I was placed on the layoff list because I am a woman,” she explained.
She raises another pressing concern: “Most employees have no savings to cover their expenses during a period of unemployment. After the sharp price rise over the past year, whatever modest reserves people once had have largely been exhausted. I consider myself no different.”
To get by, Faranak has borrowed money from her family, hoping she might find work after Nowruz. If she cannot, she will have to give up her home and move back in with her parents.
Many others, she notes — both women and men — do not even have families able to support them financially. When they lose their jobs, they are effectively left with nothing.
Official data support what Faranak and Paria describe.
Economists use a measure known as the “misery index” to capture everyday economic strain. It combines the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate with the annual inflation rate to indicate how ordinary people are faring.
According to the latest report from the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) for January and February 2026, the annual inflation rate stands at 44.6 percent, weighing heavily on the entire economy.
When the index is calculated by gender, the disparity becomes clear: the misery index for men is 50.8 points, while for women it reaches 58.9 points — an exceptionally high level of economic distress.
This 8-point gap highlights that women not only struggle with soaring living costs but also face higher economic vulnerability due to an unemployment rate twice that of men, making them more exposed to the effects of inflation.
Despite women achieving high rates of postgraduate education — and recently occupying more university seats than men — they have consistently held only a small and unfair share of employment opportunities.
According to the SCI, the unemployment rate reached 7.8 percent in autumn 2025. At the same time, the labor force participation rate fell sharply to 40.7 percent, and the employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) — the proportion of the working-age population that is employed — dropped to 37.5 percent.
This decline indicates that many people of working age are leaving the labor market, discouraged by a lack of suitable jobs or unfair wages. In addition, the number of employed individuals fell by 126,818 compared to the previous autumn.
The SCI reported that the economically inactive population — including students, homemakers, retirees, and those with income but not working — reached 39.3 million, an increase of nearly 800,000 from the same season last year.
The gender gap in Iran’s labor market has remained striking in recent years, even as the number of women with postgraduate and specialized education has grown. Despite this educational progress, women continue to face discrimination. In 2024–25, the unemployment rate was 6.2 percent for men and 14.3 percent for women.
The latest report from the SCI highlights a 2.3 percentage point rise in women’s unemployment, bringing it to 16 percent. In the autumn of 2025, over 75,000 women joined the ranks of the unemployed, and more than 212,000 left the active workforce, resulting in a total loss of over 287,000 women’s jobs.
Since late spring 2025 and following the 12-day war between Israel and the Islamic Republic, Iran’s labor market has become increasingly unstable. Layoffs have accelerated as businesses, facing high risks and worsening stagflation, reduce their workforces to cut costs and avoid bankruptcy.
Women’s representation in decision-making and managerial positions remains limited. Nationwide, they hold only 20.3 percent of roles classified as “decision makers, senior officials, and managers,” with 20.9 percent in urban areas and just 12.3 percent in rural regions, highlighting a deeper gap in less advantaged areas.
