Female-Headed Households Rising

The number of female-headed households is on the rise across the country and the main reason is death of spouse, said Habibollah Masoudi Farid, deputy for social affairs at the State Welfare Organization (SWO). “At present, 12.5% of all households in the country are headed by 2.5 million women, and only 180,000 have been covered by the SWO so far,” IRNA quoted him as saying. According to the fifth five-year economic development plan (2011-2016), each year the SWO should empower 10% of the women under its coverage. “However, 60,000 are senior citizens who can neither be empowered nor removed from the list,” he added.