Nearly 78% of Iranian women are unemployed and economically inactive, says Shahindokht Molavardi, vice president for women and family affairs. “At present, 12% of women have official jobs and 19 million are housewives,” she said. Despite the large increase in the number of women graduates, no significant change has occurred in the rate of women’s economic participation in the past four decades, she told IRNA during a visit to West Azerbaijan Province. Molaverdi attended the closing ceremony of a meeting of NGOs on Friday in the provincial capital Urumia and held discussions with women participants.
