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Women's Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Seminar Questions:

  • How did the Islamic revolution impact the lives of women?
  • Compare family law reform under the Shah and under the Islamic Republic.

Assigned Reading:

Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Marriage on Trial: Islamic Family Law in Iran and Morocco (IB Tauris, 2000), chapter 2, “The Legal Anatomy of Divorce: The Iranian Case,” 54-83.
Janet Afary, Sexual Politics in Modern Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2009), chapters 9 and 10.

Further Reading:

Sahar Maranlou, Access to Justice in Iran: Women, Perceptions and Reality (Cambridge UP, 2015).
Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran (IB Tauris, 2000).
Ziba Mir-Hosseini, "The Politics of Divorce Laws in Iran," in Rubya Mehdi, Werner Menski and Jorgen S. Nielsen (eds.), Interpreting Divorce Laws in Islam (DJOF Publishing, 2012).
Arzoo Osanloo, "What a Focus on Family Means in the Islamic Republic of Iran," in Maike Voorhoeve (ed.), Family Law in Islam: Divorce, Marriage and Women in the Muslim World (IB Tauris, 2012), 51-76.
Hammed Shahidian, Women in Iran (Greenwood Press, 2002).