Introduction

Currently, the issue of employment is one of the most critical social challenges in the country to deal with unemployment, or at least to prevent the spread of anomalies and social damages. Nowadays, rural communities, especially poor rural households, are mainly faced with information poverty, low skills, weak entrepreneurial culture and ethnic and tribal inequalities that distinguish them from other communities. The people of the rural community, especially those of the low-income groups and households that government institutions support, are involved with more issues and problems. Among these groups, women are exposed to poverty and gender discrimination more than men, and they are more vulnerable to unemployment than men. One way to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods, especially among rural women heads of households, is to provide them with microfinance in the form of providing self-sufficiency facilities and job creation through institutions such as the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation.



Methodology

This research has been conducted to study the role of employment loans on the sustainable livelihood of rural women heads of households. The research is a quantitative and applied study of nature and purpose. Also, in terms of the data collection method, it is survey research, and in terms of the data analysis method, it is descriptive-correlation research. The statistical population of this research was the rural women who were the heads of the household, whom the relief committee covered in Harsam village, Islamabad Gharb city in Kermanshah province, and 100 of these women were selected and examined by the census. The data was collected using a researcher-made questionnaire, the validity of which was confirmed by experts' opinions and its reliability by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data analysis was done in the IBMSPSS software environment.



Discussion and conclusion

The results of the study showed that the two groups of female heads of households who benefited and did not benefit from the aid committee's job creation loans had a significant difference in terms of sustainable rural livelihoods, and the beneficiary women had better livelihoods, especially in terms of financial capital and physical capital. Also, among the women benefiting from good-quality loans, those who were satisfied with the number of loans received and their repayment period and also participated in skill training courses to create jobs had a higher level of sustainable livelihood.