The Ministry of Labor issued a binding order to all girls’ private schools to allocate an hour for any teacher who is breastfeeding after resuming her work. This decision came as a step to meet the demands of a large number of nursing teachers and women’s rights activists.

The decision stipulates that the employer shall provide medical care for female workers during pregnancy and delivery. In addition to that the employer may not terminate the employment of a female worker during illness resulting from pregnancy or delivery. Such illness shall be established by a certified medical report, provided that the period of her absence does not exceed 180 days.

The new labor law says that “when a female worker returns to work following a maternity leave, she shall be entitled, in addition to the rest periods granted to all workers, to a rest period or periods not exceeding in aggregate one hour a day for nursing her infant. Such period or periods shall be calculated as part of the actual working hours and shall not entail any reduction in wages.”