Khadijeh's three-year-old son, Ali.

When we went to Khadijeh's house we literally climbed up a steep hill, that was damp with the falling snow, muddy and not an easy walk. She does it everyday carrying Ali which in whatever weather there is. When we walked into her home, it struck me that she still has her wedding picture up. Her husband sometimes comes by -- she doesn't let him inside anymore -- but lets the kids go outside to see him. "he's still their father," she says. As we were talking with Khadijeh, three-year-old Ali was having the time of his life with new guests and with my camera. Couldn't help but wonder how he'll grow up, with no real father presence, with a mother whose barely making ends meet, and with two brothers and a sister themselves trying to keep it together.

With almost 2 million drug addicts in Iran, a number rising alongside unemployment, there's been a new trend here. Overnight men are leaving their families out of addiction, and overnight the wives are left to pick up the pieces. In a culture where men are the ones who tend to work, it's causing an odd role reversal and in a strange way become part of the gender fight for equality. To see it all first hand we drove an hour outside Tehran to a center that is run by the Zenab Cobra Foundation. It helps women in this exact situation -- who have no prior training, some no education -- but now must provide for two, three, sometimes four kids on their own. They have classes in carpet weaving, computer technology, catering all meant to get the women ready to work.

It was in a weaving class we met 33-year-old Khadijeh. She has four kids, the youngest Ali is three years old and attends a daycare set up at the center while Khadijeh is training. Six years ago her husband married another woman, while still married to her, and then after losing his savings became addicted to crack cocaine. He sold everything she had -- down to the very last pots and pans -- before taking off and leaving her to care for the children. She does now, in a run down two room apartment, that is a 15-minute walk from the center. We traveled there with her, and it was heart-breaking to hear her story but inspiring to see her carry on. As the center says, from these unfortunate circumstances, a truth is being enforced in Iranian society. That when the men leave, the women can easily take over. And that equality in all rights must come quickly.


-- From CNN's Aneesh Rahman