Iran's new Islamic home economics: An exploratory attempt to conceptualize women's work in the Islamic Republic

Abstract

This is an exploratory attempt at conceptualizing the legal and ideological treatment of women's work in the Islamic Republic of Iran. With an awareness of basic methodological differences, I have borrowed and modified concepts and categories developed in economic theory. The neoclassical economic model recognizes two categories of productive female labour, and thus two types of allocation of female labour time: allocation of time for household production, and allocation of time for labor market. I will argue that the Islamic legal perception of female labor, as applied to the case of contemporary Iran, bears similarity to this theoretical model. Post-revolutionary legal system in Iran however, recognizes three categories of productive female labor: marital duties, household labor; and participation in the labor market. The government has also introduced provisions for compensation of household labor, and considers the first two categories the primary duties of a Muslim woman which leads to the justification for discriminatory policies concerning women's labor market participation and education.

Citation

Etemad Moghadam, F. (2001), "Iran's new Islamic home economics: An exploratory attempt to conceptualize women's work in the Islamic Republic", The Economics of Women and Work in the Middle East and North Africa (Research in Middle East Economics, Vol. 4), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 339-360. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1094-5334(01)04018-3