Western media commonly presents the Middle East from a monolithic ideological
standpoint.1 In the case of Iran and Afghanistan, this means using Islamic fundamentalism to
explain current conditions and issues. Both Iran and Afghanistan are formally considered Islamic
republics, and with this in mind, policy-making is often understood as being rooted in
conservative, perhaps fundamentalist, Islam. Women’s issues, including but not limited to,
sexuality, divorce, female infanticide, gender relations and equality, polygamy, education, and
veiling are often introduced and explained using a static methodology that includes debates about
modernist versus fundamentalist Islam.2 This paper considers ideology as a key factor, along
with geographic accessibility, affordability, availability, and economy, that impacts gender and
sexuality in both of these regions. I suggest that current policies that govern the availability and
accessibility of birth control are influenced not only by Islamic fundamentalist regimes, as media
frequently suggests, but also by other, more pragmatic, factors. This paper examines the histories
and current conditions and challenges in these regions in order to support this hypothesis.