This entry examines Iranian women's use of the human rights discourse to contest legal limitations under an Islamic regime. Based on field research in the year 2000, findings indicate human rights ideals serve as instruments of reform for women seeking to revise their legal, social, and political rights in Iran. This struggle takes place in the context of a reform movement that began in 1997.

Discovered in 1878 at the Babylon excavation cite, Cyrus the Great's cuneiform cylinder was declared the first ever human rights charter by the United Nations in 1971. M…