Talking to Fars News Agency, Professor Shahla Baqeri noted that female homemakers are considered jobless people, noting that research conducted on 2,000 female housekeepers showed each woman generates about 1.6 million Rials of EVA per week.

According to an article of the Fifth Development Plan (2010-15), the activities of housewives would be considered a socioeconomic activity and a suitable plan should be devised for that.

Baqeri said if a housewife refuses to perform her household duties, her husband would have to employ a person and pay for that.

“Organizations in charge of women affairs should sketch out a plan to assess housework,” she said, adding that more studies should be carried out on the issue in the Year of Economic Jihad (started March 21).

She stated that female homemakers belong to the active population of society whose problem should be resolved.
“A well-planned social security system should be devised for them,” she said.

She said providing adequate welfare facilities to female homemakers will make them needless of taking up other activities to earn a livelihood.

Baqeri stated that household management is the most important achievement of women. “In addition to flexibility, entrepreneurship depends on innovation,” she said, noting that members of Women Cultural and Social Council made extensive efforts to approve the policies regarding job generation for women.
“These policies should be ratified by the High Council of Cultural Revolution,” she concluded.

Earlier, Tayebeh Safaei, the head of Women’s Faction in parliament, said housewives must be supported financially for their work at home.

She said housekeeping chores will be included in the country’s fifth national development plan (2010-15) as economic activities because housewives play an important role in improving the economic condition of both their family and country.

In Iran, having a domestic worker is not a norm and housewives do all the chores themselves, which help the family avoid huge expenditures. This is while in Arab countries such as Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, having one or two domestic workers, who do everything from cleaning and cooking to taking care of children, is very common.