erlaubt die Verbreitung, Speicherung, Vervielfältigung und Bearbeitung bei Verwendung der gleichen CC-BY-SA 4.0-Lizenz und unter Angabe der UrheberInnen, Rechte, Änderungen und verwendeten Lizenz. Oemmelen, Hyunsuk Lee, Stephanie Kühn and all other friends who made this journey a wonderful experience for me. I am also grateful and indebted to my friend Ramin Amngostar for his support and his tirelessness in our long dis cussions over the years on my research. Finally, I want to thank my dear family, especially my parents, Ezat and Gholamreza; without their unconditional love, support and encouragement this journey could not have been possible. Contents Part One: Understanding Changing Gender Norms in the Modern Era 1 Conceptualizing Gender, Religion and Islam 2 Towards a Theoretical Model for Changing Gender Norms in the Main Streams of Islamic Thought 2 1 Religion in Sociology 2 2 The Dialectical Relationship Between Religion and Human Being: Pluralism, Rationality and the Crisis of Meaning 2 3 Islam and Structuration Theory: Between Individual Agency and Global Justice 2 4 Religion and Recognition 2 5 Theoretical Approach to Analysing Changing Gender Norms in the Main Currents of Islam 3 Methodology for Comparative Research on the Main Currents of Islam 4 Women's Rights in Iran and CEDAW: a Comparison 4 1 An Overview on the History of Women's Rights in Iran 4 2 The Emergence of CEDAW as a Global Norm of Gender Justice 4 3 Women's Rights in the Current Laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Comparison with CEDAW 5 Three Streams of Thought in the Near East and Iran and Their Views on Women's Rights 5 1 Women's Position in Diverse Currents of Islamic and Secular Thought in the Near East: the State of Research 5 2 Some Aspects of the Historical Development of the Islamic Mu'tazili and Ash'ari Schools 9 Changing Gender Norms in the Dialectical Relationship Between Revelation and Human Reason