This interdisciplinary course explores and analyzes the position of women and the role of gender in the institutions of Iran, including the family, education, government, law, the economy, and religion. It includes an examination, through the lenses of feminism, of women’s historic and contemporary status legally, politically, and economically, as well as women’s struggles in identity, expression, sexuality, and lifestyle.

Contrary to normative approaches that address violence against women, this course utilizes feminist theory to explore how violence against women is largely a product of gendered systematic power inequalities, cultural trends, inadequate legal policies at the local and international levels, as well as failure to proactively prevent the violence from occurring.  The course considers regional, transnational, and global issues related to women and violence.  Most importantly, the course troubles the collective identity woman due to the reality that womanhood is experienced diversely and cannot be simplistically defined as a homogenous category.  Therefore, the course considers how violence is experienced in varying ways by women due to their intersectional identities.