(NCRI) and (PMOI / MEK Iran): Unfortunately, women are the last to be hired and the first to be fired in Iran so when there is an economic crisis they are the main victims. Basically, they are just cheap labor and have no rights at all.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI), and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), reported that many Iranians work in insecure, informal jobs. The percentage in some provinces rises to 70% of the workforce in the informal sector. These workers are the most vulnerable to any kind of economic crisis, such as the one associated with the global pandemic.

Informal workers

Women workers are even worse off than men as they not only occupy some of the worst jobs they are regarded as disposable to their employers. According to the Iranian Parliament’s Research Center, 84 percent of whom were working for employers who employed fewer than 5 employees, many of whom were informal workers.

The Organization of Social Security Research found that 80 percent of uninsured workers were women. Many of these women are indispensable to their families but totally disposable to their employers. They usually have no legal support, they may be disabled, their rights are often ignored, and may not be paid on time, with wages often weeks or months late.

Cheap labor

(PMOI / MEK Iran) network inside Iran reports that women workers are often the first to be fired when there is an economic downturn and are seen as cheap labor. According to the Iranian regime, there was a rise in employment of about 3 million between 2015 and 2019, but many of these were informal workers, often insecure and part-time. These workers find it hard to secure enough pay to support their families.

The following are a sample of some of these tragic cases. The information was supplied by the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Without any welfare help

(PMOI / MEK Iran) supporters from the city of Sari reported that the 47 mother-of-three, Maryam, lives in a home-built shack. It doesn’t have electricity. The ceiling collapsed once and there was a fire. Maryam works two cleaning shifts a day, looks after a sick husband, and does it all without any welfare help. “If one day, for any reason, I do not go to work and stay home, that day, we would have nothing to eat,” she said.

(PMOI / MEK Iran) supporters from the city of Urmia reported that the 50-year-old mother-of-two, Massoumeh, has been the main earner for her family as her husband has died. She has chest pain and backache and hasn’t paid her rent for eight months. She has worked as a house cleaner but hasn’t had much work and her landlord has been harassing her for rent.

Massoumeh, 50, a mother-of-two from Urmia, suffers from backache and chest pain but has been the breadwinner since her husband died. She has been unable to pay her rent in eight months because of a reduced demand for house cleaners and her landlord has repeatedly harassed her.

She said: “the Coronavirus outbreak has had a direct impact on our life. The demand for housework has become much less than before. It’s been a long time since my children and I have eaten meat. I do not have any savings. If our relatives don’t help, it is impossible to continue like this even for an hour.”

MEK Iran (follow them on Twitter and Facebook)

and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTube