Veiled Employment: Islamism and the Political Economy of Women’s Employment in Iran

7. Veiled Economy: Gender and the Informal Sector

226 Veiled Economy Gender and the Informal Sector Roksana Bahramitash and Shahla Kazemipour The informal sector has been defined by the International Labour Office as a group of household enterprises or unincorporated enterprises owned by households that includes informal ownaccount enterprises that may employ contributing family workers and employees on an occasional basis, and enterprises of informal economy that employ one or more employees on a continuous basis. This sector includes the black market or underground economy, dominated by illegal activities (arms smuggling, prostitution, drug trade, and other illegal jobs). In this research we have not analyzed the underground economy. Official data tend to overlook the informal sector, particularly street vendors and home-based enterprises. This neglect is partially owing to the fact that some home enterprises try to hide their economic activities in order to avoid paying taxes. The informal sector, which is a growing part of the economy throughout the world, remains far less researched than the formal sector. The lack of data is a problem throughout the world, and it is particularly a problem in the Middle East and North Africa region, including Iran. In the case of Iran, there are no publications on the topic in English. Literature on employment is generally on the formal sector only, and even that research is sparse. In this chapter we will first discuss our survey of the informal sector in Tehran and then we will concentrate on street vending. This Veiled Economy • 227 chapter focuses more on those who come from low-income households and complements chapter 8 by Fatemeh Moghadam, who has provided us with her research on women in upper- and middle-class households. In the early chapters of this book we argued that women ’s employment has increased over the past decade. We based this assertion mainly on official data and the formal sector over the past few decades. With modernization of the agricultural sector, informal rural employment has declined, as rural employment has typically experienced a decline while urban labor markets have expanded. It can be speculated that in the face of rising unemployment, many women will enter the informal sector because it is relatively easy to enter and provides more opportunities than the formal sector. Gender and the Informal Economy in Iran The United Nations Country Assessment in 2003 reported that the informal sector constitutes 65 percent of Iran’s GNP (United Nations 2003, 40) (corresponding figures for Asia, 65 percent; Latin America, 65 percent; and Sub-Saharan Africa, 72 percent [ILO 2002]). As is often the case in many parts of the south, this sector of the economy is tolerated by the state and sometimes even encouraged in an effort to alleviate poverty and increase employment. At the same time, the informal economy and its expansion can be a source of problems as it generates no tax revenue for the state. This has been a critical issue in the face of Iran’s desire to move away from an oil-based economy. After the war with Iraq ended in 1988, the government boosted investment in employment-generating industries, which had the effect of expanding the informal economy. This investment was viewed as an effective way of combating the unemployment that plagued Iran’s economy during the war. As mentioned earlier, this is a large sector that employs many people, yet there has been little research on it, and what has been written has not paid attention to the role of women. Jomeh Poour’s excellent research on informal activity in Said Khadan (a busy area in a Tehran middle-income neighborhood), for example, provides a 228 • Veiled Employment great deal of insight into the topic but does not address the issue of gender (Jomeh Poour 2003). One reason for this omission is because sexual segregation makes it difficult for male researchers to conduct research; therefore, it is imperative for female researchers to be involved. It is very easy for researchers to just ignore women and focus on the general state of the sector, and for this reason data gathering on women’s role in this sector has been handicapped. When discussing the role of women in the informal sector, the issue of sexual segregation is an important topic that merits some discussion. There is worldwide gender segregation in the area of employment. Throughout the world men are overrepresented in highpaid , “skilled,” and full-time jobs with fringe benefits, while women are...