Women in Iran have been treated as second-class citizens by the mullahs for almost five decades. Women’s dress codes are under constant scrutiny. They must wear the hijab, and ‘morality police’ are on relentless patrol to enforce the law. The death in custody of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September 2022 for not wearing her hijab properly ignited a nationwide uprising and a brutal crackdown by the mullahs that led to more than 750 deaths and tens of thousands of arrests. Women, particularly young women like Mahsa Amini, are singled out for brutal attacks for the ‘crime’ of malveiling. Girls who were deemed to be improperly dressed in the street have suffered horrific acid attacks and stabbings, in assaults openly condoned by the mullahs. Teenage girls arrested for the offense of posting videos of themselves dancing or singing on social media have been publicly flogged. Young female students attending end-of-term parties have been fined and beaten. This is what gender equality looks like in Iran today. But courageous women have led the protests, chanting “Women, resistance, freedom.” They have been on the front line of demonstrations calling for overthrowing the theocratic regime.
Against this background of unrelenting misogyny and discrimination, the exploitation of Iranian nurses, a respected and hardworking sector of society, continues unabated. As the Iranian economy collapses under a tsunami of political incompetence, corruption, warmongering, and international sanctions, the rial has halved in value since Masoud Pezeshkian, the so-called ‘moderate’ president, took office in August last year. At the time of the 1979 revolution, which overthrew the hated tyranny of the Shah, one US dollar was valued at 74 rials. Today, one US dollar is worth a staggering 940,000 rials. A hospital nurse is paid a fixed monthly salary of 130 million rials, approximately $140 based on current exchange rates, or under $5 per day, well below the international poverty line set by the World Bank. Often, due to the collapsing economy, salaries can be withheld for 6 months or even a year. By contrast, trained nurses can earn up to $2,000 monthly in Oman, Dubai, and other Persian Gulf States. In the EU, they can earn €3,500 ($3,665); in America, they can take home $6,000 monthly.
To make matters worse, as the overall number of nurses in Iran shrinks, the workload on those who remain increases exponentially. The disastrous employment and salary conditions have created a brain drain as thousands of trained nurses flee abroad. On February 18, the state-run newspaper Vatan-e Emrooz, acknowledging the dire situation, ran a headline: “Iran trains and exports nurses to the world for free!” There are now only 250,000 nurses serving a population of over 85 million, or approximately 1.6 nurses per 1,000 people, almost half the minimum standards set by the World Health Organization. Of the 12,000 nursing graduates annually, more than 3,000 emigrate, making Iran the biggest exporter of trained nurses in the Middle East. Due to the appalling conditions, a further 1,800 nurses leave their jobs every year, creating severe staffing shortages and a critical challenge to the nation’s healthcare system.
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Nurses nationwide are now participating in protests and demonstrations, demanding improved working conditions and fair pay. They protest against extended work shifts, low salaries, and mandatory overtime. They claim that understaffing, long hours and high-stress environments push nurses to seek employment in countries offering better working conditions and more advanced facilities. They also feel frustrated by the lack of professional growth and advancement opportunities in their home country. Despite the growing unrest, the Iranian regime appears to be taking no significant measures to address the issue, leaving the future of Iran’s healthcare system hanging in the balance. Indeed, rather than addressing nurses’ demands, the theocratic regime responds with further suppression. Nurses involved in protest rallies have faced suspensions, dismissals, and other punitive measures. Even experienced nurses with years of dedicated service have been fired.
Iran’s nurses have to contend with a double oppression - misogynistic discrimination and challenging work conditions. Without meaningful reforms and improvements in working conditions, the country risks losing more of its vital healthcare workers, potentially leading to a full-blown healthcare crisis, adding to the woes of the mullahs. However, Iran's labor laws forbid the formation of trade unions, so a wide range of professionals, from teachers and nurses to industrial workers, cannot organize and protest against their challenging working conditions freely. As a result, there are almost daily demonstrations and protests which the mullahs deem as ‘illegal gatherings,’ deploying their hated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – the regime’s Gestapo, and the thuggish Basij militia, to crack down on the strikers.
Despite their record of violent oppression and persecution, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in February that: “For decades, the Iranian people have faced grave challenges, including unjust economic sanctions and terrorism, which have had many devastating impacts on their social and economic rights.” Defending his country’s record, he claimed that Tehran was committed to improving human rights and cited achievements in education, healthcare, and women's rights. He blamed Western sanctions against Iran for their economic problems, omitting to mention that many of the sanctions directly related to human rights abuse and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the theocratic regime, including a frenzy of executions aimed at frightening the public into passive submission. The mullahs have hanged over 1,000 people in the past year, including 31 women. Iran is now the world’s leading executioner per capita.
But tyranny and suppression have only enraged and emboldened the country’s rebellious youth, including the dwindling legions of long-suffering nurses. Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, famously said: “How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.” It is a message the mullahs would do well to remember.
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