My research deals with the history of Iranian masculinities during the late 19th to middle 20th centuries, and with the way masculinities intersect with questions of modernity, nationalism and class. Despite the fact that the history of gender in Iran was researched extensively, there is still no full-fledged research that focuses on masculinities as its main interest. Western powers had great influence on processes that occurred in Iran through commerce, concession hunting etc. During the time frame of this paper, power relations between Iran and the West changed due to Reza Shah's rising to power, and his move towards ending Iran's dependency on foreign powers. Western models of masculinity, to which (mostly middle and upper class) Iranian men were exposed via overseas education or encounters with Westerners, posed a dilemma. On the one hand, Iranians were awed by Western power, progress and prosperity, and wished to import what they conceived as the causes to these into Iran. On the other hand, appropriating a new kind of masculinity contained the threat of becoming an empty vessel, a spineless imitator who adopted mostly the external characteristics of the West without the power related to them. These imitators were named in Persian "Fokoli", after the bowtie worn by them, and scorned by society. The term Fokoli appeared during the first decade of the 20th century, and was widely discussed during the early 1920s. The forced westernization of Iran during Reza Shah's reign, which included a dress reform enacted in 1928, ordering all Iranian men to wear western attire, caused the term to be pushed aside. The importance of a healthy and strong body took its place as a main concern of masculine identity. The Iranian man was now required to care for and nurture his body so that it would be of use to the nation. This approach was encouraged from above by compulsory physical education in schools as well as by the encouragement of the Boy Scouts organization. The case of Iran exemplifies an important aspect of masculinity – that of Power Relations. The weakness of Iran at the face of Western nations, and the wish to change this balance, whether by Iranian men who were exposed to Western power or by the Iranian regime, brought about changes in masculine identity as a tool of adjustment to a new national and international order.