This volume seeks to move away from the oppositional positions taken by
Western and Muslim women and provide a clear understanding of the
possibilities and the limits that the process of reconstruction and
reinterpretation of Islamic dictum can and does present for progress of
women in Islamist countries. It is the contentions of this author that
women the world over seek similar goals and face similar problems. But
specific circumstances and specific constraints dictate differing
priorities and differing approaches in different contexts. If feminism
is to return to a universalist position then it must gain an
understanding of these differences. This volume seeks to provide a step
in the right direction by looking at the recent decades of struggles by
Islamist women in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the increasing
rapprochement between secularist and Islamist women in that country in
pursuit of common goals.