From Status to Rights: The Shifting Dimensions of Women's Activism in Iranian Family Law Reform

This chapter will examine the contemporary legal, social and religious (jurisprudential) debates over the recent revisions to Iran's Family Protection Act (2011). By highlighting the differential tenor of these debates in various sectors of Iranian society, this chapter will reveal the tensions over women's status and rights in Iranian society, the role of law in shaping that status from 'above,' and, finally, the disparate groups claiming the authority to define women's roles in the Iranian social order.

The chapter will connect such debates to the broader contests over legitimacy and authority in governance in an Islamic republic that is moving closer to a consolidation of power by certain groups.