ABSTRACT
In the context of a highly authoritarian and theocratic state in Iran, women’s rights have been framed within an Islamist normative discourse, not only by religious and state authorities, but also by some advocates of women’s rights, dubbed “Islamist feminists” (Yeganeh and Tabari 1982; Afshar 1998).1 Such strategies have attracted considerable controversy, almost since the immediate aftermath of the Iranian revolution in 1979. Some observers have underlined the ways in which Islamist feminist strategies have enabled women not only to derail the claim that feminism and gender equality are Western paradigms, but to break the male monopoly on interpreting Islamic texts (Hoodfar 1999). Others have been more sanguine about such strategies and their outcomes, underlining the patriarchal nature of Islamic teaching and scripture and its incompatibility with feminism and gender equality (Afkhami 1994; Moghissi 1994).
