{"id":21477,"date":"2018-11-07T10:22:48","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T10:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21477"},"modified":"2018-11-07T10:22:48","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T10:22:48","slug":"why-iranian-women-are-among-the-most-vulnerable-to-us-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21477","title":{"rendered":"Why Iranian women are among the most vulnerable to US sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On\u00a0November 5,\u00a0further US sanctions on Iran\u00a0went into\u00a0effect<\/a> and\u00a0are expected to bring\u00a0devastating\u00a0consequences on the Islamic Republic\u00a0and its people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is feared that women along with children and impoverished Iranians are most at risk.<\/p>\n

Fatemeh, 27,\u00a0works at a public health policy start-up\u00a0and\u00a0teaches\u00a0biology at a\u00a0high school\u00a0in\u00a0the Iranian capital, Tehran.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Born in\u00a0Iran\u00a0in the\u00a0aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war, she\u00a0and her\u00a0family\u00a0moved\u00a0to Canada\u00a0and\u00a0relocated to\u00a0California at age 13.<\/span><\/p>\n

After graduating, she decided that she wanted to return. L<\/span>ike many\u00a0others,\u00a0she has\u00a0already started to feel the effect of sanctions.<\/p>\n

“It definitely hasn’t been easy,” she told Al Jazeera. “Six,\u00a0seven\u00a0months\u00a0ago, when the\u00a0dollar and [rial] went crazy, prices went up.\u00a0It makes\u00a0me doubt if [returning] was really a good decision,\u00a0and whether\u00a0I\u00a0can\u00a0sustain this for much\u00a0longer.<\/span><\/p>\n

“No matter how much money I make,\u00a0it is worth nothing in dollars.”<\/span><\/p>\n

With the devaluation of Iran’s currency, Fatemeh’s monthly\u00a0salary\u00a0is\u00a0equivalent to\u00a0about\u00a0$160,\u00a0a steep decrease from what it used to be, around $800.<\/span><\/p>\n

To add to income woes, women’s\u00a0products such as menstrual\u00a0hygiene items\u00a0<\/span>and certain medication have become steadily more difficult to find and much more expensive.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver time, sanctions eventually impoverish the middle class and they are designed to do that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Azadeh Moaveni, gender consultant at International Crisis Group<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Fatemeh said searching for\u00a0Western\u00a0brands like\u00a0Always or Kotex can be frustrating.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“I went to six or seven pharmacies in a day and I just couldn’t find them anywhere,” she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u00a0ventured\u00a0to Jordan, a\u00a0more affluent part of town, but the shelves were empty there, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even Iranian brands\u00a0have become more expensive; what was once 100,000 rial is now being sold for 160,000 rial, which is now worth around $3.80.<\/span><\/p>\n

Azadeh Moaveni, gender consultant at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera:\u00a0“There are micro-shortages of every day things which erode the quality of life of different classes in different ways. Over time, sanctions eventually impoverish the middle class and they are designed to do that.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The scarcity has also led to panic buying and hoarding.<\/span><\/p>\n

“From the seller’s perspective,”\u00a0Fatemeh\u00a0said,\u00a0“they might hold on to them and wait until the next week to try to sell their products for a higher value.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Yasaman, a\u00a022-year-old\u00a0university graduate,\u00a0works in her family’s fast restaurant\u00a0in Shiraz.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“People\u00a0just aren’t buying anything right now if they can avoid it.\u00a0I haven’t gone shopping recently,\u00a0all the items\u00a0have become more\u00a0expensive,” she told Al Jazeera. “We had to increase the prices on our menu but customers understood that we didn’t have a choice.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Khamenei’s call<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

After Norouz (New Year) celebrations\u00a0last March,\u00a0Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\u00a0called<\/a> on Iranians\u00a0<\/span>to support\u00a0domestic production.<\/span><\/p>\n

“A lot of\u00a0people have taken it to heart,”\u00a0Fatemeh\u00a0said,\u00a0“even those who don’t\u00a0necessarily\u00a0politically agree with\u00a0Khamenei.”<\/span><\/p>\n

But even locally made products are more expensive. Nappies, for example, are made with imported raw materials.<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Analysts warned that economic sanctions could ultimately affect the traditional family dynamic and leave women vulnerable [Fatemeh Bahrami\/Anadolu Agency\/Getty Images]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One woman told Al Jazeera, speaking on the condition of anonymity, that\u00a0<\/span>the sanctions could lead to a lower birth rate.<\/span><\/p>\n

She explained that\u00a0people have been reconsidering having children because\u00a0essential items such as nappies and\u00a0formula are now unaffordable, even for an\u00a0<\/span>average\u00a0dual-income household.<\/p>\n

“When the Central Bank\u00a0is sanctioned,\u00a0it makes purchasing goods\u00a0near impossible,”\u00a0said Washington, DC-based Sussan Tahmasebi, the director of Femena, an organisation supporting women’s rights.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She\u00a0explained that the inability to transfer funds through SWIFT – meaning from one country to another – is the main problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Long-term effect<\/span><\/h2>\n

Beyond the immediate and visible effect – shortages and high prices – analysts warned that sanctions could disrupt the family dynamic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moaveni, the International Crisis Group consultant, said: “Women, as organisers of family life, healthcare, education, will\u00a0often\u00a0carry the burden of trying to come up with alternatives for their families in all instances.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If men can’t provide for their families in a society that is\u00a0still\u00a0largely traditional and patriarchal, if they can’t fulfil the [perceived] duties of their gender role, it does tend to create tension and encourage forms of more assertive masculinity that are not as constructive to women having a say in the family unit.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Not being able to earn or support the family has an impact on men’s conception of themselves.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nFurther US sanctions on Iran\u00a0<\/span>went into\u00a0effect on November 5, 2018\u00a0[Abedin Taherkenareh\/EPA-EFE]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On Monday,\u00a0US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo tweeted in Farsi: “[US] sanctions do not apply to the sale of food, agriculture, medicine, and medical devices.<\/span><\/p>\n

“[The US]\u00a0<\/span>stands in solidarity with the Iranian people.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But according\u00a0to more than\u00a050 academic\u00a0studies<\/span><\/a>, economic sanctions in the past on Iran\u00a0have\u00a0had a humanitarian effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

They have\u00a0adversely\u00a0affected\u00a0the standard of living for\u00a0ordinary\u00a0Iranians,\u00a0made certain medications inaccessible,\u00a0and triggered public health concerns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“People say medicine isn’t sanctioned and that humanitarian aid isn’t sanctioned,”\u00a0said Tahmasebi,<\/span>\u00a0“but it is.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On\u00a0November 5,\u00a0further US sanctions on Iran\u00a0went into\u00a0effect and\u00a0are expected to bring\u00a0devastating\u00a0consequences on the Islamic Republic\u00a0and its people.\u00a0 It is feared that women along with children and impoverished Iranians are most at risk. Fatemeh, 27,\u00a0works at a public health policy start-up\u00a0and\u00a0teaches\u00a0biology at a\u00a0high school\u00a0in\u00a0the Iranian capital, Tehran.\u00a0 Born in\u00a0Iran\u00a0in the\u00a0aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war, she\u00a0and her\u00a0family\u00a0moved\u00a0to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}