Feb. 28, 2026, the United States and Israel have been at war with Iran after launching airstrikes across the nation, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and destabilizing the Iranian regime. This has incited an international conflict characterized by regional spillovers, an impasse over shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz and a humanitarian crisis. Bombings have internally displaced an estimated 3.2 million Iranians and killed more than 3,375 people, according to Iran’s Ministry of Health, including targeted strikes on public spaces. The bombings have also severely limited access to essential trauma care, medication and clean water.

The War’s Unequal Toll on Women

The current war in Iran is causing immense harm to middle- and low-income populations in the region, augmenting levels of poverty worldwide. An analysis from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) from June 2026 suggested that due to the Iran war, “20.9 million more people may be living in poverty” across the 20 countries they analyzed.

The impact the 2026 war has had on women is of particular concern for both physical and psychological reasons. Pregnant women in the affected region face extreme health complications due to toxic environmental pollution from bombed oil fields and fractured prenatal care systems. According to Ambassador Melanne Verveer, executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son, is “raising concerns that his leadership will entrench hardline views within the government, including in relation to women’s status.” Verveer noted that Mojtaba Khamenei was a prominent target of criticism during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests from September 2022. Additionally, women displaced as a result of the war face elevated risks of exploitation and gender-based violence, exacerbating the struggle to safely access physical aid drops.

The Psychological Casualties of Conflict

The recent conflict’s effects on women’s mental health in Iran have not appeared in the news as frequently or emphatically as the more visible physical traumas, but the issue is growing increasingly pervasive and grave. Airstrikes, infrastructure destruction and explosions have led to widespread post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), disordered sleep and eating, chronic hypervigilance and acute anxiety among civilian women.

Economic Insecurity and Women’s Mental Health in Iran

Women’s mental suffering is not only tied to direct violence they are witnessing or facing but is also a result of the systemic challenges that the conflict has intensified. Iranian labor data show that women’s participation in the workforce has declined from approximately 16% in 2024 to 2025 to 11% thus far in 2026, and as CNN reports, “Women have made a third of all unemployment insurance claims since the war started.” Although women outnumber men in Iranian universities, this does not translate into equal career or hiring opportunity. Laws heavily favor male employment, and job advertisements frequently feature explicit gender specifications favoring male applicants. This reality is crushing for the many Iranian women who dreamed of applying their studies and being financially independent. Moreover, the escalating need for Iranian women’s financial dependence on men also contributes to increased vulnerability to emotional and physical domestic violence.

Psychological-Care

Fortunately, some humanitarian organizations are rallying efforts in support and relief for the crisis of women’s well-being in Iran. Notably, Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian organization founded in 1971, is operating projects in South Tehran, Mashhad and Kerman, endeavoring to provide not just emergency medical and trauma care, but also offering services in mental health counseling, psychiatric care, as well as sexual and reproductive health.

Similarly, the United Nations Population Fund, established in 1969, is working with Iran’s government and local partners to provide mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) primarily through community-based multi-purpose service centers aimed at marginalized groups like woman-headed households and refugees.

Expanding the Humanitarian Response

While these initiatives offer valuable and essential support, the scale of the mental and structural crisis amplified for women in Iran by the 2026 war calls for a broader response. The current experiences of Iranian women cannot be measured solely through casualties and injuries as the additional hardships of lost employment, financial dependence, displacement, gender-based violence and psychological trauma can continue to distress women’s lives long after immediate emergencies pass. Greater investment in accessible care for women’s mental health in Iran alongside economic protections will help to lessen this gap, and ensure that recovery in Iran accounts for the consequences of war that are less perceivable in the immediate sense, but no less consequential.

– Nilani Mathur

Nilani is based in Longmeadow, MA, USA and focuses on Global Health and Politics for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr