Women in Virus-Hit Iran Tech Sector Fight to Keep Hard-Won jobs

By Lucie Peytermann

From the hustle and bustle of a startup, Fereshteh Kasrai now works from home, like many Iranian women fighting to keep hard-won tech jobs as the coronavirus outbreak stirs uncertainty.

Iran says the COVID-19 disease has claimed more than 5,200 lives and infected close to 83,000 over the past two months, in the Middle East's deadliest outbreak.

Kasrai says working remotely from the confines of her home amid the health crisis has had its upsides and downsides.

"Emotionally, it's very bad, but it's more efficient," she says in a teleconference call.

She comes across as tired, contrasting with the energetic tone when AFP met her at her workplace in Tehran a few weeks ago.

"For me, it's a little bit difficult. I miss my colleagues and I miss the days when we interacted," she says.

The 44-year-old is head of human resources at Alibaba, Iran's largest online travel booking service.

She doesn't hide her concerns for the startup whose core business has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Kasrai and her colleagues had to adapt at short notice to ensure they didn't lose out.

"We are having daily meetings and video calls. It's not the same quality as face-to-face work but it's the best we can do."

'Iran Silicon Valley'

To enter Alibaba's headquarters is to enter another Iran, a short distance from impoverished districts of the capital.

An "Iran Silicon Valley" sign adorns the entrance of the building.

The interior is trendy with giant cushions in rest areas and glass enclosed offices where staff focus their gaze on high-end computers.

Dressed in tight-fitting jeans and scarves that reveal their hair, women work alongside men, an uncommon mix in the Islamic republic.

Of the nearly 700 employees at Alibaba, 42 percent are women. Some have senior roles, a challenge in this patriarchal society.

"I worked with three large companies before Alibaba... and I felt that growing in those places requires a certain condition," Anis Amir Arjmandi, a legal manager, says referring to nepotism.

"The opportunities I'm given here—which is not because of my gender or my position, but the company's way of doing things—enable me to have a degree of freedom," she says.

Her colleague Fatemeh Ashrafi, 38, says there are more opportunities in startups.

"There's more space to express oneself, since the bureaucratic hierarchies are less intrusive," she says.

"We can see our managers whenever we want. We don't need to wait at their doors and ask for time" to meet.

Tech journalist Khosro Kalbasi says women benefit from working in startups as they are more progressive with younger managers.

"Over the years the number of women employed by these companies has grown," he says.

Iran is one of the Middle East's most connected with an internet penetration rate of 87 percent.

Opportunity to Innovate

Azadeh Kian, professor of sociology in Paris and a specialist on Iran, says women account for 70 percent of engineering and science students in the Islamic republic.

"It is a sector where they know they can have more room for improvement and the possibility of innovating," Kian says.

Kasrai says Iranian women are becoming increasingly assertive in the workplace.

"They have no fear to express themselves," she says.

She said she was pleased to see "as many women as we have men" in Alibaba's tech division, breaking the "taboo" that a programmer must be a man.

Startups began emerging in Iran in the 2000s, before really taking off from 2013.

But the country's tech sector was hit hard by the reinstatement of US sanctions in 2018, after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.

In an unexpected twist, the sanctions were seized upon by Iranian entrepreneurs as an opportunity to launch even more startups.

With the benefit of being protected from foreign competition, they took inspiration from global giants to create local equivalents.

Among them are Digikala, Iran's answer to US online retailer Amazon, as well as Tap30 and Snapp!, which are similar to US ride-hailing service Uber.

Mona Ahmadi says she has flourished at Tap30, where she manages around 140 call centre workers, 61 of them young women.

"I'm a workaholic," says the 33-year-old, dressed in a denim jacket and leggings.

"I've always wanted to have a good job and social status," she says with a smile.

Forty-five percent of Tap30's staff are women.

"Most of them are less than 30 years old, and they are employed in all sectors -- marketing, technical, HR, call centre," says Negar Arab, who is head of communications.

As well as Arab's own position, the company's finance and legal divisions also have women at the helm, she adds.

But Arab says the coronavirus outbreak has turned her life upside down.

She says it has made her "very busy" between working remotely and taking care of her daughter and her family.

One of the biggest success stories among Iran's startups is Takhfifan, an online retailer founded by Nazanin Daneshvar and her sister.

Established eight years ago, Takhfifan employs 350 people but its offices are now closed and working from home is widespread.

"Everything has come as a bit of a shock," Daneshvar says on the phone, her baby babbling away in the background.

"The (staff) are really doing a good job although it is very difficult and can be exhausting" to work from home and to handle things remotely using apps, she says.

She also laments that there aren't enough "women at the critical and top, top positions in e-commerce".

Family Pressures

Times had already been tough for women long before the coronavirus outbreak.

"In the first couple of years, I used to take my dad along (to meetings) because nobody accepted me as the manager," Daneshvar says.

But even now it is still "two times more difficult" to work as a woman, she says.

"The reality I always fight against is that they judge men based on their potential but judge women on their past performance."

As a result, many end up quitting, says Daneshvar.

"I have had employees who left... as the husband is not happy because they couldn't cook at the right time, or they couldn't deliver what you expect as a traditional woman."

Arjmandi says most top posts are filled by men, leaving women vulnerable.

She says women are more likely to lose jobs amid the health and economic crises, especially in governmental or semi-governmental enterprises.

Photo: HAMAVA

Under Pressure, Some Young Iranians Persevere, But Many Want to Flee

Some young Iranians are determined to modernize their country and rescue it from economic collapse. But facing relentless US pressure and increasing hardship, many of the educated elite simply want to leave.

On an up-market balcony in Tehran, shaded from a roasting summer sun, a string of entrepreneurs are filming success stories and advice for the next generation of start-up wannabes.

For a country supposedly on the brink of economic meltdown, the mood is surprisingly upbeat.

"We are experts in adapting to times of trouble," said Reza Ghiabi, CEO of a tech-focused consultancy firm, who calls himself an "unshakable responsible optimist".

"Many Iranians had success in the past in Berlin, Silicon Valley and London, but our generation is tired of emigrating and being just an employee. Now we're trying to create something for ourselves," he told AFP.

Everyone knows the challenges are daunting: rampant unemployment, rising prices, a crashing currency. 

None of it is helped by the return of full-scale US sanctions next month following Washington's decision to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal, nor the bellicose threats between President Donald Trump and Iranian officials in recent days.

"We understand this is not a good situation, but we can't just wait for things to get better. We have to do it ourselves," said Alireza Khodaie, 30,  who makes high-end shoes and is one of the organizers behind Tehran's inaugural Start-Up Week that begins on August 3.

There are a few examples that offer hope for Iran's highly educated, globalized youth: the huge success of taxi app Snapp, a slew of hip new cafes and restaurants, and tech hubs fostering everything from music streaming services to online education portals.

The more business-friendly government of President Hassan Rouhani is less suspicious than its predecessors of these Western-influenced innovations.

"We've tried to be independent in the past, but we can't ignore the government, and there are now people who understand and listen. We want to be part of policy-making," said Khodaie.   

'I Won't Find Work'

But that sort of optimism is fading among Iran's educated middle- and upper-classes, who see little prospect of political and economic change.

If officials in Washington hope that will lead to mass protests against the government, they are likely to be disappointed. The brutal response to past demonstrations, and fears that protests could degenerate into violent chaos like in Syria, have bred a weary resignation. 

Instead, most just want to leave.  

"Young people have lost all hope in their future," said 21-year-old law student Parisa.

"I've been looking for work for three months to pay for my studies and help my father. I'm a law student but I know that once my studies are finished I won't find work," she said.

"There are many who want to leave and they are right because over there, they can progress and will have a decent salary."

The US stepped up its pressure campaign this weekend, with Trump threatening unprecedented "suffering" for Iran, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announcing a renewed propaganda effort to undermine its leaders.

But that is largely background noise to Iran's youth. Around two-thirds of Iranians were born after the 1979 revolution and have grown up with the incessant back-and-forth between their government and Washington.

They are more focused on what is happening internally, and for many it was the decision in April to block the most popular social media app Telegram that was the final straw. 

"I spent two days in my room, I was so depressed," said a film editor in her 20s who campaigned for Rouhani's re-election last year when he vowed no more censorship.

"He made all these promises, and still this happened. I used to be so angry with all my friends who were leaving, but for the first time I thought maybe it's time to go."

'Officials Don't Listen'

In some ways things have improved for young people, but not fast enough to meet their heightened expectations. 

Today, they openly criticize the government and the system in a way that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago, but they feel ignored.

"Officials don't listen to young people. They ignore their hopes, their views on life, society, religion, politics," said Ehsan, a 24-year-old student.  

"I was one of those who told my friends they must vote because that allowed us to demand things... but now I see we can't do anything." 

But abandoning friends, family and homeland is tough, so for the optimistic entrepreneurs there is a determination to struggle through. 

Sanctions have not been entirely negative, said Amirreza Mohammadi, another of Start-Up Week's organizers. 

By blocking foreign competition, sanctions "created jobs for young Iranians and created a desire to push forward our own projects," he said.

"Maybe one day I'll be forced to leave too," said Khodaie. "But this is somewhere I can have an impact and that moves me to stay."

Photo Credit: Ted Regencia