Women and Work in a Rural Area Near Shiraz: ۱. Helping the Family

In rural Iran, during the ۱۹۶۰ and earlier, girls and women worked hard at animal care, dealing with animal products, domestic work, foraging, childcare, and sometimes home-based industries such as knotting the uppers for hand-made shoes and preparing yarn to sell. (Hooglund (Hegland), M. ۱۹۸۰/۱a; ۱۹۸۰/۱b; ۱۹۸۲; ۱۹۸۶; ۱۹۹۲; ۱۹۹۶; ۲۰۲۱d; Irandust, N., Hegland, M.E. ۲۰۲۵). Generally, in rural areas such as Aliabad, the settlement near Shiraz where the author has conducted her anthropological research, if a girl or woman worked for others, it meant her father, brother, husband, or son was not capable of supporting her a terrible shame. However, over the last fifty years, these attitudes about females working have changed drastically (Hegland, M., ۲۰۰۹; ۲۰۱۶; ۲۰۱۱). Gradually, Aliabad females have begun working. At present, it is almost unusual that a girl or young woman will not be working. The phenomena of rural area Iranian females, especially younger ones, working has been largely overlooked. Statistics on Iranian females working are low, but do not take into account the recent rush to work of even women in rural areas, sometimes in relatively informal situations. This research over some fifty years in a settlement not far from Shiraz investigates the many types of work that have been developed by women, often as entrepreneurs in fields new for females, now being done by women. We also investigate some of the influences and reasons why work has become so common among younger Aliabad females especially. We attempt to understand how and why attitudes regarding female work outside of the domestic area or outside of the traditional limits of domestic work have changed so drastically. (Hegland, M.E. ۱۹۸۳, ۱۹۸۶۱, ۱۹۸۶b, ۱۹۹۰, ۱۹۹۱, ۱۹۹۹).