The impacts of COVID-19 on the women heading their households in Iran

Iran was one of the first countries to be impacted by COVID-19, facing many challenges during this period. The pandemic has had significant effects on many aspects of women's lives, particularly those who head their households, and this article examines the shift in some of these lives through interview data. The paper is anchored in the feminization of poverty theory. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews with 28 women who were heads of their households in Tehran, themes were extracted through thematic analysis. The research results indicate that job insecurity, problems with housing, sexual harassment, lack of a sense of happiness, and mental anxieties are the most substantial impacts of COVID-19 on these Iranian women.