Invisible Labour: Afghan Migrant Women in Iran’s Labour Market

The GLU Programme extends an invitation for a seminar presented by Visiting Research, Ms Maryam Rahimi from University of Tehran, Iran.

This presentation examines the gendered dimensions of labour among Afghan migrant women in Iran, one of the largest South–South migration corridors. Despite their significant presence in Iran’s workforce, Afghan women remain largely excluded from formal employment and social protection systems. Restrictive migration laws, precarious legal status, and entrenched gender hierarchies have confined them to informal, low-paid, and insecure jobs such as domestic work, cleaning, and small-scale manufacturing.

The study explores the diverse forms of employment available to these women and analyses how the political economy of labour in Iran produces and sustains precarity in their working lives. It also investigates how Afghan women are systematically excluded from labour rights and institutional protections, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and invisibility. At the same time, it highlights how their invisible labour, like unpaid, underpaid, and unrecognized forms of work, contributes substantial value to both household economies and the wider informal labour market, yet remains absent from official statistics and public discourse.

By situating the Iranian case within broader debates on labour, gender, and migration in the Global South, the study contributes to discussions on informality, inequality, and the need for more inclusive labour policies that address the intersection of gender and migration.

Maryam Rahimi is a visiting GLU researcher, and currently a PhD candidate in Social Policy at the University of Tehran, Iran. 

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