The proliferation of homelessness and poverty in Iran has put many women in difficult circumstances, as some women are drawn into prostitution and addiction. On April 12th state-run Fars News Agency, affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards, brought to light this issue, by capturing the stories of several destitute homeless women. 

One of the marginalized women was Afsaneh, who lives in squalor and couldn’t afford to raise a child, so she sold her child while she is still pregnant.

Moreover, Laila was another case, as she has been homeless for almost 10 years, since she left home when she was 20, and now sleeps in the streets of Tehran.  Laila too sold her unborn child, for $600 on the condition that it was healthy.

Many prominent females in Iran have illuminated the plight of homeless in their country, such as Fatemeh Daneshvar a member of Tehran’s city council, who wrote on her Instagram “a 21-year-old woman from the city of Arak has run away 10 times from her home, and doesn’t know the father of her child, and her father has thus refused to take her in”. 

The plight of homeless women in Iran is dire. The President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Maryam Rajavi has pointed out that “the number of vulnerable homeless women in Tehran exceeds 5,000”. 

Accordingly, Rajavi has stated that nearly 87% of Iran’s unemployed populace is female, drawing context to the difficulties that many Iranian women face.