Massive participation of Iranian women in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and women's support for political Islam in the 1980s have led specialists to inquire into the reasons behind women's participation in Islamist movements whose aim, it is argued, is to limit women's rights and their political, economic, and social choice. Given the limitation of existing research and published material on Afghanistan this entry focuses on Iran.

In the name of religion some Islamists with a positivist approach to nature essentialize gender inequality, which they consider to be…