ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Iran's experience with both the secular, and the Sharia Law-based criminal justice systems as a prelude to exploring women's crime and law-infracting behaviour under the two systems. Iran's secular criminal justice system was formed under the Pahlavi Dynasty and its two monarchs, Reza shah and Muhammad Reza shah. The Pahlavi Dynasty replaced the Qajar Dynasty in 1925. The criminal justice system in Iran, based on the Twelve Imami Shii version of the Sharia Law, is a product of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The system of law and conflict resolution, formed in the early 1980s during the tenure of the Ayatullah Ruhullah Musavi Khumaini, replaced the secular system that the two Pahlavi monarchs had established in Iran during their consecutive reigns. Modern penological philosophy rested on the idea that punishment ought to be both punitive and penitential effects on criminals.
