A Study of the Experience of Women in the Village of Kushk Qazi in Fars Province under the Shadow of Water Stress and Drought

Drought and its consequences along with mismanagement have caused the drying up of underground resources and water stress in a number of villages in the country. Kushk Qazi village is one of the villages of Fasa city in Fars province. All its water resources have dried up and dozens of families whose livelihood depended on agriculture are now facing unemployment, poverty and migration.  Natural disasters, including water scarcity, are multifaceted phenomena. In this study, a qualitative and critical approach is used to study the gender aspect and lived experience of rural women using the phenomenological method. Field data in this study were collected through purposive sampling and in-depth interviews with 20 women in the village of Kushk Qazi, as well as field observation and note-taking. Then using the analytical induction technique; sub-themes, main and final themes have been discovered and extracted. The three main themes of systematic poverty are the scarcity mentality, the perception of adaptation, and the "accumulation of super-challenges" which has been extracted as the final theme. Systematic impoverishment due to unjust and inefficient structures and laws, lack of perception of adaptation and psychological barrier of scarcity mentality have caused adaptation to dehydration to face serious obstacles. All these reasons, along with the previous challenges, have created new forms of harms and inequalities and have led to a phenomenon called "accumulation of super-challenges", resulting in the vulnerability of the poor, such as women, who have already faced all kinds of inequalities and constraints and have exposed them to the harms and dangers posed by these super-challenges.