The role of Iranian women in business: Iran and Italy case study

The issue of female entrepreneurship has become a globally important topic in recent years, especially for countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Especially, in the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the topic remains under-researched despite the significance of female entrepreneurship as a means of addressing the disproportionately high unemployment within the educated female work force1 (World Bank, 2013). This essay analyses the difficulties for Iranian women entering successfully into the business world from their homeland as well as a foreign state (in this case study Italy). Starting with an overview on the historical background of women in Iran, this essay will focus on the Iranian business environment after the Islamic revolution and how commercial trades became difficult due to the nuclear issue that led to the sanctions and embargos on Iran. After this brief historical introduction, this research will highlight how socio-cultural as well as economic factors are the main gender barriers to entrepreneurial activity of women in Iran and highlight the main sources of motivation that stimulate women to not give up their business aspirations. Since this essay concentrates on Iranian businesswomen and their relations with Italy, it will present an outlook on the Iranian diaspora in Italy, showing how it has always been fragmentary and discontinuous and, therefore, it never led to any extended, cohesive social groups of permanent residents making any analysis quite difficult to achieve.