Jul 16, 2014

A number of female employees were recently fired by the Tehran municipality, reportedly for their own “well-being.” Both the sudden decision and its motivation shocked many at the Tehran City Council and officials managing women’s affairs in the administration of President Hassan Rouhani.

Farzad Khalafi, media affairs deputy for the Tehran municipality, told Iranian Labour News Agency July 13, “Secretarial work and office management is time consuming and lengthy, and for the comfort and well-being of women, this decision was adopted that the office manager and secretary be a gentleman.”

Khalafi continued, “The officials at the municipality may be at work until night and visit various projects, and this needs the presence of the office manager. In this case, it’s possible that women would be inconvenienced and strained and not be able to take care of their lives and family, and it’s possible there would be a disruption in their life.”

He added that there are many other women employed by the city and there is no plan to fire them.

Khalafi also said that there was no specific directive for the firing of the female workers and that the decision had been made in a meeting. Shahindokth Molaverdi, Rouhani’s vice president for Women and Family Affairs, told Reformist Etemaad that there was indeed a directive by the municipality to fire the female employees. She said that it “has not yet been implemented and no one has been fired.” Etemaad did not clarify whether it had interviewed her before the firings or if she had simply been unaware of them.