Minority Women and Agency in Iran

This book illuminates the underexamined histories and lived experiences of Bahá’í women in Iran, tracing their engagement with structures of exclusion, resistance, and social transformation from the nineteenth century to the present. Situating these narratives within the longue durée of Iranian sociopolitical change, the book explores how religious marginalization and gendered inequality intersect to shape both constraints and possibilities for agency. Combining historical analysis with close attention to lived experience, this study foregrounds voices that have remained largely absent from both nationalist historiography and dominant feminist accounts. In doing so, it highlights how Bahá’í women have negotiated complex forms of belonging while contributing to broader processes of social and political change, including those reflected in the contemporary “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement. By placing these experiences in dialogue with debates on social movements, minority rights, and political participation, the book offers a nuanced rethinking of agency under conditions of constraint. Both analytically rigorous and accessible, this work will engage scholars of gender and Middle Eastern studies while inviting a wider readership to reconsider the role of marginalized actors in shaping modern Iran.