“At the interview, they asked me for a written statement from my husband proving that I would get a work permit,” said Neda, who holds a master’s degree in petroleum and gas engineering from the Iranian Central Bank.

She says she feels humiliated.

“I tell them that I am an adult and can make my own decisions.”

She is not the only one who has had this experience. By law, married women in Iran need their husband’s permission to work – this is just one of the many legal hurdles they face when entering the job market.

A 2024 World Bank report ranks Iran among the countries with the worst gender-based legal barriers to the labor market (only Yemen and the West Bank and Gaza Strip fare worse).

And the statistics show this too. According to the World Economic Forum’s latest report “Global Gender Gap 2024”, Iran has the lowest female participation rate among 146 countries examined.

While women in India account for more than 50% of all university graduates, their share of the workforce (based on 2023 data) is only about 2%.

Gender-specific laws, as well as widespread sexual harassment and other sexist views about women and their abilities, result in the work environment being extremely hostile for women.

Most of these female members of the BBC are following this article and say they feel that no one takes them seriously enough at work.

“Various legal and cultural barriers keep women out of the labor market in Iran,” said Nadereh Chamlou, a former senior adviser at the World Bank.

According to Chamlou, factors such as the lack of a legal framework and existing legal restrictions, the very large gender pay gap and the “very low glass ceiling” contribute to women’s limited participation in the labour market in Iran.

Men say they have the right to prevent their wives from working, and some of them make use of this legal privilege.

Iranian businessman Saeed told the BBC: “An angry husband storms into our office, swinging a metal rod in the air and shouting: ‘Who gave you permission to hire my wife?'”

He says I make sure I get my husband’s written permission if I want to hire a woman.

Razieh, a young professional working for a private company, recalls a similar incident when an angry man stormed into her office and told the CEO, “I don’t want my wife working here.”

The managing director, Razieh, told the woman, a senior accountant, to “go home and try to work things out with her husband. Otherwise she would have to quit, which she later did.”

This legislation is also the reason why many companies refuse to hire young women, said Nadereh Chamlou, because employers “do not want to invest in the training of these women, otherwise their husbands could take them out of work.”

And even if the women employed do not, in most cases, have to fight with their own families and spouses for work permits, women are discriminated against to a degree enshrined in law.

One of these laws is Article 1105 of the Civil Code of the Islamic Republic, which defines the husband as the head of the family and the main breadwinner.

This means that men are given preference over women when it comes to hiring. Women are expected to earn less than their male colleagues when offered the job.

Raz, she is in her late 20s and hasn’t changed jobs often, so she says she always has a woman’s job that she has to sacrifice first.

“At my last job, there was a restructuring where almost all women were asked to leave,” she said.

One woman, who asked for her identity to be kept secret, told the BBC she decided to quit her job after more than a decade and stay at home “because I know I’ll never get promoted.”

“As long as men are available, even if they are less qualified, I will never be considered for a raise or promotion. It’s a waste of time,” she said.

In fact, women are not legally considered breadwinners and providers of the household, which means they are not entitled to social benefits and bonuses.

In many cases where they are entitled to them, “the benefits they have accumulated over their years of employment do not apply to their families, benefits such as a pension,” Ms Chamlou said.

“So they are reducing the returns that women get from work and bringing them into their families,” adds the former World Bank senior adviser.

Sepideh earned her master’s degree in art from Tehran University. She taught for three years and led independent art projects, but stopped working for a few years.

“After I leave school, I think I could just live life like many of the men I know. But the social, political and economic structures are designed in such a way that a real career is not an attainable dream for women,” Sepideh told the BBC.

The compulsory hijab law was at the centre of widespread protests in Iran two years ago and continues to be a major source of contention and political disagreement for the government.

This law also prohibits women who do not adhere to the strictest forms of hijab from entering various professions, particularly in government and public service.

“In Iran, there is what I call the missing middle,” says Nadereh Chamlou, explaining what she means by “middle-aged women, middle-educated, high school graduates, non-working, middle-class.”

“The legal work permit for husbands and the lower retirement age for women in Iran to 55, the age group normally used for the workforce.”

Sanctions and mismanagement do not harm the Iranian economy.

According to an IMF report, economic growth is linked to higher female labor force participation. It is estimated that raising the female labor force participation rate in Iran to the male employment level would increase gross domestic product (GDP) by around 40 percent.

However, according to Nadereh Chamlou, there is currently no “active or conscious political will” to bring about changes that would involve women in working life.

However, she believes that women in Iran are taking their affairs into their own hands and setting up small independent businesses to open up the job market for them.

“Some of the most innovative business ideas, from cooking apps to digital retail platforms, are being launched by women,” she explains, adding that she sees this as a “true private sector for Iran” with women taking the majority of the benefits.