Chapter 1 focuses on the sociopolitical and cultural background of Iran with respect to sigheh marriages and female sexuality from the final years of the Qajar era to the Islamic period. I trace the sociocultural impacts of the gender-based reforms under each regime and discuss the fluctuating value of sigheh marriages during each period and how the disequilibrium of these reforms influences prevailing discourses on female sexuality, sigheh marriages, and further stigmatization of sigheh women.