Because of the state of research on this subject, this entry concentrates on the period after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. It is generally agreed that the Pahlavī period (1926–79) was one of modernization, understood as Westernization, and that an emerging Iranian upper and upper middle class acquired Western tastes during this period, displaying specific consumption patterns. However, the gender dynamic of these patterns has been less, if at all, researched.

After the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian economy was reorganized on principles combining private in…