A century of political and social upheavals in Iran and Afghanistan, beginning in the late nineteenth century, situated women at the heart of diverse class, ethnic, national, and religious “imagined communities.” In both countries, the link between gender and modernity played a significant role in shaping and representing the nation, women in the nation, and various subnational identities. Neither Iran nor Afghanistan was formally colonized, and both countries underwent periods of indigenous reform and revolution in the twentieth century.

During the Iranian Constitutional …