Evaluation of women’s social vulnerability in natural disasters, with an emphasis on Varzeghan and Ahar earthquakes

Iran as one of the outstanding countries regarding disaster occurrences is experiencing, on average, one earthquake
of above 3 Richters every week. Earthquake is a natural disaster, however, due to its various social consequences,
has become a subject of sociology and has created vulnerable groups, one of those groups being women.
The aim of this study is to evaluate women’s social vulnerability following the earthquakes. This research includes
both qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative method is used to identify the social damages to
women experiencing earthquakes and collecting categories through focus groups. In the quantitative phase, 90
women who have experienced Varzaghan and Ahar earthquakes are compared to another peer group of 90 persons
who have not experienced the earthquake, in order to examine the variables. The results showed that women are
one of the most dama,get society groups, not only having the highest rate of mortality but also are victims of many
social problems such as social insecurity, mistrust toward society and social alienation