covid-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a profound global crisis with extensive impacts on social and economic structures worldwide. This study examines the shifts in income mobility within Iranian households, focusing particularly on those with employed women prior to the onset of the pandemic. Utilizing household income and expenditure data from 2017 to 2019, this research employs advanced econometric models such as the regression discontinuity design and transition matrix analysis to explore the economic repercussions of the pandemic. The findings reveal a significant disparity in income mobility between households with employed women and those with only employed men. Households with employed women experienced greater financial instability and a higher likelihood of descending into lower income brackets compared to their male counterparts. The pandemic disproportionately affected sectors with high female employment rates, such as the service industry, exacerbating the economic vulnerability of these households. In-depth analysis indicates that the closure of schools and childcare facilities, coupled with the downturn in service sector demand, are pivotal factors that intensified the economic decline for women in the workforce. These sectors traditionally employ a higher percentage of women, and the sudden reduction in demand has led to a notable increase in female unemployment rates, further impacting household income stability. In conclusion, The insights provided in this study not only contribute to a deeper understanding of the pandemic's impacts but also inform future policy-making aimed at fostering economic resilience and equality.

Financially distressed firms are actively seeking ways to minimize tax-related cash outflows. During the COVID-19 pandemic, as financial constraints intensified, tax savings emerged as a vital source of internal financing for these firms. As a result, financially distressed firms are more likely to adopt tax avoidance strategies. This study aimed to investigate the impact of financial distress on tax avoidance and how this relationship manifested during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research sample consisted of 162 firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) from 2017 to 2022. The findings revealed that financial distress had a positive and significant effect on tax avoidance, indicating that firms experiencing greater financial distress were more likely to engage in tax avoidance throughout the study period. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly moderate the relationship between financial distress and tax avoidance. While this study contributed to the existing literature on the effects of financial distress on tax avoidance, it also enhanced our understanding of how financial crises, particularly those resulting from COVID-19, influenced this relationship. Moreover, contrary to the initial research hypotheses, the findings suggested that COVID-19 did not significantly impact the relationship between financial distress and tax avoidance.
Keywords: Financial Distress, Tax Avoidance, COVID-19 Pandemic, Tax Discount.
JEL Classification: H26, G32, M41, M48
 
In times of financial distress, firms often deplete a significant portion of their cash reserves, exacerbating their financial challenges. This state of distress drives companies to seek ways to reduce tax-related cash outflows, increasing the likelihood that financially distressed firms will engage in tax avoidance (Brondolo, 2009). Several studies (e.g., Edwards et al., 2016; Richardson et al., 2015; Mokhtari, 2019; Hajiha et al., 2017) provide evidence supporting a positive relationship between financial distress and tax avoidance. The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced unprecedented economic challenges and uncertainties for firms worldwide. In response to these uncertainties, managers are compelled to develop various strategies, with tax avoidance emerging as a preferred method for generating internal cash flows. This study aimed to examine the impact of financial distress on tax avoidance and investigate the moderating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relationship between financial distress and tax avoidance. Our research contributed significantly to the existing literature. First, our findings enhanced the body of research on tax avoidance among financially distressed firms (e.g., Edwards et al., 2016; Dang & Tran, 2021; Sadjiarto et al., 2020; Putri & Chariri, 2017; Nugroho et al., 2020; Mokhtari, 2019; Qavi Panjeh & Gharib, 2018; Hajiha et al., 2017). Second, by considering both macroeconomic and firm-level factors that influenced corporate tax strategies, this study deepened our understanding of how firms utilized tax avoidance as a strategy during periods of uncertainty. This study examined the following hypotheses:H1: Financial distress is associated with tax avoidance. 
H2: The COVID-19 pandemic moderates the relationship between financial distress and tax avoidance.
 
Materials & Data were collected from 162 firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) between 2015 and 2022, resulting in a total of 972 firm-year observations. The sample excluded firms from the insurance, financial, and banking sectors. Tax avoidance was measured as the difference between a firm's cash taxes paid adjusted for any tax refunds receivable and the product of its pretax book income and the statutory tax rate. This measure was then scaled by the book value of the firm's assets. A firm was considered to engage in tax avoidance when its cash taxes paid were less than its pretax income multiplied by the statutory tax rate. Since part of the tax paid in the current period might pertain to taxes determined in prior periods, the tax expense reported in the income statement was used in place of cash taxes paid for this analysis. Financial distress was assessed using the Altman Z Score. The COVID-19 pandemic served as the moderating variable represented as a dummy variable with a value of 1 for the COVID-19 period and zero otherwise. The years 2019 and 2020 were designated as the COVID-19 outbreak period. To test the research hypotheses, regression models were estimated using the Generalized Least Squares (GLS) estimator.
 
Table 1 presents the results of the GLS regression analysis regarding the impact of financial distress on tax avoidance, as well as the moderating effect of COVID-19 on this relationship. Column 1 shows the effect of financial distress on tax avoidance. The findings indicated that the coefficient for financial distress was positive and statistically significant, suggesting that financial distress was associated with increased tax avoidance. Furthermore, the results revealed that the coefficient for the interaction term (COVID*FD) was not statistically significant, indicating that the COVID-19 variable did not have a significant effect on the relationship between financial distress and tax avoidance. Consequently, the model estimation results did not support our second hypothesis.
 
Discussion & Tax avoidance is a strategy used to minimize tax liabilities. Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence suggest that financially distressed firms have a stronger incentive to engage in tax avoidance as tax savings can provide an alternative source of financing. Furthermore, during crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the significance of tax savings increases for firms facing heightened financial challenges. This study investigated the moderating effect of COVID-19 on the relationship between financial distress and tax avoidance. The findings indicated that financial distress positively affected tax avoidance, supporting the notion that financially distressed firms are more likely to adopt tax avoidance strategies. These results are consistent with previous theoretical frameworks and empirical studies, including Edwards et al. (2016), Dang and Tran (2021), Mills and Newberry (2005), Sadjiarto et al. (2020), Putri and Chariri (2017), Nugroho et al. (2020), Richardson et al. (2015), Hasan et al. (2017), Akamah et al. (2021), Dyreng and Markle (2016), Hajiha et al. (2017), and Mokhtari (2019). Moreover, while several studies indicated that firms adopt aggressive tax strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of uncertainty (Lee et al., 2021; Guenther et al., 2019; Huang et al., 2017), this study found that the COVID-19 outbreak did not significantly moderate the relationship between financial distress and tax avoidance. The contributions of this study enrich the growing body of literature on corporate tax strategies during times of crisis. The findings have important implications for both corporate managers and investors. For corporate managers, the results underscore the importance of tax avoidance strategies. When considering tax avoidance, managers should weigh the benefits, such as reduced tax liabilities and increased cash flow, against potential costs, including audit expenses, penalties, and reputational damage that may arise.

 In recent years, the COVID-19 virus has brought significant consequences to various fields, including capital markets and the global economy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of audit quality on the relationship between earnings management and financial performance of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 To test the hypotheses of the research, a sample consisting of 106 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange was collected for the period 2011 to 2021, and the results were analyzed based on the multiple regression model and using panel data.

 The findings showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has an impact on the financial performance of companies, accrual earnings management and auditor reputation, but it has not had a significant effect on real earnings management and auditor tenure. Earnings management also has a significant relationship with the financial performance of companies. Auditor reputation does not affect the relationship between accrual earnings management and financial performance of companies, but it has a negative and significant effect on the relationship between accrual earnings management and financial performance of companies. Auditor tenure has a positive and significant effect on the relationship between accrual earnings management and financial performance of companies, but it does not affect the relationship between real earnings management and financial performance of companies.

This research covers the existing gap regarding the impact of financial crises, the last of which was the COVID-19 pandemic, on the financial performance of companies and the audit quality in this era as much as possible. It also investigates the motivations of earnings management. Managers tend to present a favorable image of themselves to investors therefore this research examines the relationship between earnings management and financial performance during the pandemic.

Military/civilian relations have always been the focus of political science studies, and, military intervention in crisis caused by natural disasters has been considered as a different field from conventional but undesirable interventions in civilian affairs. Although the corona pandemic crisis has been different from other conventional natural disasters but affects the normal process of life beyond normal capacities of administrations then can be categorized as natural disasters and in practice military forces in most countries have participated in the management of this global crisis along with the political organization. NATO also played an important role in the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. How NATO intervenes in the Corona crisis is a central question that will be answered in this text. The results of this research show that NATO, not as a main actor, but in the form of a facilitator, has tried to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic from entering the stage of a contagious disease into a security crisis. This issue has been the red line of NATO in the issues that happened in the member countries, which has overshadowed the performance of the military forces and the Ministry of Defense of the mentioned countries. Obviously, during the period of spring 2020 to spring 2022, this military security organization will focus its efforts on disease control and the efficient implementation of the quarantine and social distancing policy through the use of executive operations, setting up camps and using logistics, distributing equipment and organizing forces to establish a state of martial law

Uncertainty in food supply in the country has heightened the focus on the supply chain of semi-prepared foods. Like many economic sectors, the food supply chain has not been immune to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Food supply, influenced by the behaviors of governments and customers during such crises, can exacerbate uncertainties in the supply chain, underlining the need for simulating the behavior of supply chain actors. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to develop an agent-based simulation to analyze the relationships between actors in the supply chain of ready and semi-prepared foods concerning raw material imports and final product exports during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study is applied in its aim and descriptive-analytical in terms of data collection, utilizing agent-based simulation techniques. The case study for simulating pandemic conditions in the supply chain is one of the ready and semi-prepared food companies in Tehran Province with a production capacity of 216,000 tons per month. To identify factors, variables, and parameters for the agent-based model, the research employed thematic analysis, reviewing prior studies, and conducting interviews with 20 industry experts from the ready and semi-prepared food sector and supply chain experts from Amadeh-Laziz Company.

The findings identified three main actors in the food supply chain that play a role in exports: “Government”  (e.g., customs, national standards organization, consumer protection organizations, industry and mining banks, Iran Chamber of Commerce-Industries-Mines and Agriculture, and the Food and Drug Administration), “Supply Chain Companies” (e.g., domestic suppliers, foreign suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors), and “Final Customers” (e.g., domestic and foreign customers). The key uncertainty identified in interviews was governmental intervention or non-intervention in exports and imports.Accordingly, two scenarios were developed: “Governmental intervention in exports and imports”, and “Lack of governmental support in exports and imports during the pandemic”. These scenarios were analyzed using agent-based simulation to examine the relationships, characteristics, and decision-making behaviors of supply chain actors. Additionally, fuzzy DEMATEL was used as a complementary method to identify the most significant relationships among actors in the ready and semi-prepared food supply chain. Simulation parameters included: Import tariffs on raw materials (%), Export tariffs on final products (%), Total monthly domestic demand (in thousand tons), Total monthly foreign demand (in thousand tons), Total monthly demand (in thousand tons), Maximum production capacity (in thousand tons).Simulation variables included: Percentage change in total costs compared to the base price, Percentage of completed domestic customer orders, Percentage of completed foreign customer orders, Total completed orders (total sales volume), Profits from the domestic market, Profits from the foreign market, Percentage of overall profitability. The simulation was performed under the two scenarios of governmental non-intervention and governmental intervention in importing raw materials and exporting final products, with emphasis on two main variables: profitability and order fulfillment rate, which encapsulate the model’s overall outcomes.

The results indicate that under the governmental intervention scenario, profitability increased by 6%, and total order fulfillment improved by 14%. Based on the defined criteria for scenario comparison, the second scenario (governmental support) provides more favorable conditions for supporting domestic production, enhancing employment levels, and ensuring food security in both domestic and international markets.

 The aim of this research is to analyze the COVID-19 virus spatially based on demographic and geographic indicators in dry areas (in Qom metropolis).

 The data for this research was obtained through the available data from Qom University of Medical Sciences during the years 2018-1400. This information is based on the location of each person in the GIS software environment, and the methods of nearest neighbor index (NNI), global Moran's test, and general G statistic were used to measure spatial autocorrelation statistics.

 This research showed that the spread and pandemic of COVID-19 in some dry areas (Shahreqom) have more acute conditions than other localities.

 Based on the research findings, it can be said that the distribution pattern of this disease in the neighborhoods of Qom city is clustered and cluster type with high intensity. This relationship is stronger and with the highest frequency in the localities of Bajak Ik, Khakfaraj, Nirogah, and Shahrpardisan and in the localities of Hozovi and University and Fatemieh towns, which are the watery localities with the lowest frequency in terms of demographic and geographical indicators.

Innovation:

 Among the most important innovative and practical aspects of research, we can mention the use of GIS in the distribution and spread of COVID-19 in different urban areas of dry regions. In fact, among the applications of this research, it is possible to mention the field of behavior and spatiotemporal function of viruses similar to the type of COVID-19 virus, which provides a coherent intellectual framework for controlling and preventing its epidemic.

Infectious diseases cause behavioral and social changes. tourism industry and tourist guides are also changing like other sectors.Before the covid, Ardabil province was an active province in the field of nature and culture tourism, and nature guides and cultural guides of both groups were active in this province. So this study aims to examine the impacts of COVID-19 on different aspects of urban tourist guides' lives. this research was conducted as qualitative research in a phenomenological format. 16 tourist guides of Ardabil were investigated by snowball sampling method to collect data. the data was obtained using semi-structured interviews and analyzed in a seven-step Colaizzi method.based on the analysis the positive and negative dimensions of life were recorded in this period and 10 categories of meanings were identified for the lived experience of the tourist guides of Ardabil province during the outbreak of COVID-19, which are: changes in lifestyle, economic challenges and opportunities, transformation of employment pattern, changing in attitudes, advertising, compliance with health issues, changing forms of social relations, mental and psychological issues, stagnation in activities and organizational obstacles.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, governments worldwide implemented crisis management strategies to reduce emissions from traffic sources. This study examines changes in air pollutant concentrations and traffic volume considered subsets of the environmental index of sustainable urban development—during the Covid-19 epidemic, comparing them with the pre-epidemic period from January 21, 2018, to March 20, 2022. The primary objective of this research is to compare pollutant concentrations during the epidemic with those of the pre-pandemic period and to develop a model for predicting the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Iran's metropolitan cities.First, collected pollutant data from Iran’s metropolises were processed and cleaned. Following feature selection using the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, machine learning methods were applied to analyze the data. The results reveal that no consistent pattern of increase or decrease in pollutant concentrations was observed across all metropolitan cities during the Covid-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. The effects of restrictions on pollutant concentrations varied significantly across different cities.To manage both the pandemic crisis and the associated air pollution crisis, which may exacerbate the spread of disease, it is essential to design traffic restriction models tailored to the specific conditions of each urban location. Additionally, the findings indicate that the Air Quality Index in most of Iran’s major cities did not decrease during the pandemic; in fact, it increased. Therefore, targeted and precise measures must be adopted to manage similar crises in the future. Such measures should aim to reduce pollutant concentrations and improve the air quality index, taking into account the geographical characteristics of each city.

The objective of this study was to analyze and diagnose intellectual capital challenges within the healthcare and medical education system of North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This research was conducted using a mixed-methods approach, including both qualitative and quantitative analyses. The qualitative section involved interviews with 17 experts in the healthcare and medical education system, selected through purposive sampling. For the quantitative part, 278 presidents, deputies, and experts from the healthcare and medical education sectors were surveyed using stratified random sampling. Data collection involved field methods (interviews, questionnaires) and library research. MAXQDA software was used for qualitative data analysis, while SPSS22 and PLS3 were used for quantitative testing of components' validity and reliability. 

The study identified three main themes related to intellectual capital issues: structural weaknesses, human resource challenges, and communication problems. These factors were found to have a significant impact on the current and desired state of the healthcare and medical education systems during the pandemic. The analysis showed that the influence of these issues on intellectual capital retention exceeded the threshold of 1.96, indicating their critical role in affecting organizational efficiency and effectiveness during the COVID-19 crisis. 

The findings highlight that intellectual capital, particularly in terms of human resources, structural processes, and communication, plays a crucial role in the successful management of healthcare and educational systems during a crisis. Addressing these challenges through improved infrastructure, human resource development, and enhanced communication strategies can significantly improve organizational performance during future crises.

In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed considerable harm on economies globally. This situation has prompted researchers to thoroughly examine the issue from different perspectives and view bolstering the resilience of countries as the most effective strategy to address the vulnerabilities. Such efforts can mitigate the harmful effects and negative outcomes of the disease. The susceptibility of economic systems to the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic varies, with some being significantly more vulnerable to its effects. In this context, the greater a country's ability to mobilize its resources against such risks, the more resilient it becomes. Hence, economic resilience is regarded as a comprehensive approach to enhancing the existing capacities and reducing economic vulnerability in the face of various crises and environmental threats. Moreover, economic resilience is shaped by the implementation of economic policies and has an accumulative nature. Individuals and different schools of thought have focused on the concept of resilience within the economic realm, structuring their studies accordingly. Economic resilience emerges as a pervasive criterion in the literature on economic stabilization.In the economic discourse, particular emphasis is placed on assessing the composite index of economic resilience against external shocks, aiming to quantify this notion. This study sets out to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the economic resilience of countries across high, medium and low levels of income. Addressing 150 nations, this research employs the PSTR model over the timeframe spanning 2020 to 2021. The Economic Resilience Index is computed utilizing the Bruegel method for this inquiry. 

The PSTAR (Panel Smooth Transition Autoregressive) model is a powerful tool utilized to analyze nonlinearities and regime shifts in panel data. It extends traditional autoregressive models by allowing for smooth transitions between different states or regimes, thereby capturing complex dynamics in economic time series data.The PSTAR model assumes that the relationship between variables evolves smoothly over time and across different regimes. It is particularly useful in capturing threshold effects, where the impacts of one or more variables on the dependent variable change abruptly beyond a certain threshold level. This is achieved through the specification of transition functions, which determine how the model transitions occur between different regimes based on the values of certain threshold variables. The PSTAR model estimation involves several steps, including the specification of transition functions, estimation of model parameters using maximum likelihood or other suitable methods, and diagnostic checks to assess the model's goodness-of-fit and validity of assumptions. Additionally, we conduct robustness checks and sensitivity analyses to ensure the reliability of our findings.

This study reveals a significant negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic resilience of countries across different income levels. Employing a two-regime model, the analysis demonstrates a nonlinear correlation among the variables, suggesting varied adjustment speeds among economic regimes. Specifically, countries with high incomes experience a moderate pace of adjustment, those with moderate incomes adjust slowly, and low-income countries adjust rapidly. This suggests that economic changes in response to the pandemic occur at different speeds across income groups.The COVID-19 pandemic has induced structural and performance alterations in economies worldwide, including increased unemployment, reduced growth, and shifts in consumption and investment patterns. These changes, coupled with challenges such as quarantine restrictions and decreased incomes, have led to considerable adjustments in economic dynamics, varying in speed from one state to another.Overall, economic changes during the pandemic are of significant diversity across countries, affecting consumption and production behaviors, policy frameworks, and international relations. Threshold values, representing critical points of pandemic severity, determine whether economic variables behave linearly or nonlinearly. When the pandemic's impact surpasses these thresholds, economic variables begin shifting to nonlinear regimes.Estimations from the smooth panel regression approach indicate a notable negative effect of the pandemic on economic vulnerability, affecting countries with high, medium, and low incomes alike. Per capita GDP, remittances, and foreign direct investment emerge as key influencers of economic resilience. While per capita GDP decreases during the pandemic for high and medium-income countries, it increases in the second threshold regime and boosts economic resilience. Remittances positively impact economic resilience in high-income countries but negatively affect medium and low-income ones initially, transitioning to positive effects after crossing the threshold. Foreign direct investment initially reduces economic resilience across all income levels but becomes positive and significant in high-income countries after crossing the threshold.In summary, the study underscores the complex interplay between the COVID-19 pandemic and economic resilience, emphasizing the need for tailored policy responses to mitigate its adverse effects across different income groups.Conclusions and Policy Implications: Although the public health system is evolving, the world remains susceptible to shocks caused by contagious diseases that present fundamental challenges to economies. The vulnerability resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred countries to allocate more funds to ensure economic security and global health. Nations across the globe are working to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis through well-balanced policies, seeking to mitigate risks to the society as much as possible. To tackle the COVID-19 crisis, extensive actions are being taken, including sharing knowledge and experiences regarding strategies, policies and improvement plans, examining common responses, and coordinating actions to enhance resilience and effective recovery preparedness. Strengthening communication among policymakers, development planners, and relevant stakeholders, establishing strong multilateral institutions with political support for global health shock coordination, creating fast financial procurement mechanisms for essential goods, increasing investment in disease surveillance at global and regional levels, developing regional production capacities for vaccines, tests and medicines, sharing medical technology and knowledge, and transferring medical technologies are the measures being taken. Additionally, strategic approaches to national improvement, including economic and financial measures, effective financial procurement design, and financial resource mobilization efforts to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, are being pursued. These measures aim to enhance the resilience and sustainability of public health systems and foster systematic research and development for the preparation of effective and safe vaccines against any virus. Therefore, based on the findings of this research and similar studies, policymakers need to focus on strengthening the economic resilience of countries, in addition to implementing other policies aimed at reducing the spread of and preventing the COVID-19 disease. These actions may include policies to strengthen healthcare infrastructure, develop economic and social crisis response plans, and encourage the development of human resources needed to combat the disease and its economic impacts.

The present study was conducted to investigate the mediating role of parental burnout in the relationship between mental distress and child abuse in the covid-19 pandemic. The statistical population of the research included all mothers of secondary school students in Ardakan city in the academic year 1400-1401. 248 people were selected with convenience sampling and answered the standard child abuse questionnaires (CAQ) Hosseinkhani et al., (2012), psychological distress (DTQ) Kessler et al. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. The results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between mental distress and parental burnout with child abuse (P<0.05). Also, the results showed that parental burnout has a direct and significant effect on child abuse and mental distress on parental burnout (P<0.05). Also, psychological distress through parental burnout had an important indirect impact on child abuse (P<0.05). Therefore, the research model has a good fit, and psychological distress due to parental burnout is related to misbehaving children during the COVID-19 pandemic, and these findings can be used in educational programs and interventions related to families in epidemic conditions.

This study examines urban livability as a multidimensional framework for addressing future pandemics in urban settings, in response to the vulnerabilities exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research employs an applied, descriptive-analytical model, utilizing both documentary and survey methods (questionnaires) for data collection. The statistical population consists of residents from the Sabzdasht and Koy-e Golestan neighborhoods, with a sample size of 200 individuals from each area. Urban livability indicators were evaluated through a structured questionnaire. Analysis using independent T-tests and two-way ANOVA reveals that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the dimensions of “housing”, “transportation”, “economic”, “environmental”, and “leisure” in Sabzehdasht, and “environmental”, “economic”, and “leisure” in Koy-e Golestan, did not receive favorable assessments. Overall, urban livability indicators in both neighborhoods were below the statistical average, although livability in Sabzeh Dasht was significantly higher than in Koyi Golestan. These results highlight the need to enhance urban livability to better prepare for future pandemics.

The aim of the current study is to examine the role of spiritual-religious health in reducing stress and enhancing spiritual and psychological health among Iranian women during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Methods and Materials: 

This descriptive research included a sample of 384 Iranian women. After providing their consent, participants completed the research questionnaires on Google Forms, which included George's Religious Health Questionnaire, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). 

The research results, analyzed using AMOS24 software, indicate a relationship between the level of spiritual-religious health and religious beliefs and stress in women during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was confirmed due to the significance level being less than (P<0.05), and the use of spiritual-religious beliefs could explain and predict 40.3% of the stress in women. Additionally, the use of spiritual-religious health tools and religious beliefs and general psychological health in women was confirmed due to the significance level (P<0.05). The use of religious beliefs also explained and predicted 35.5% of the variance in women's general health during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens the lives of millions of people worldwide. Religious beliefs have had a significant impact on reducing stress and anxiety and increasing general psychological health in Iranian women. The study results place a heavy responsibility on specialists in this field, especially in the Muslim country of Iran, to promote spiritual-religious aspects and change the lifestyle of women to make significant strides in women's health.