Abstract: Art has a special power to confront social injustice and incite change. This paper aims to focus on the modern art production in Iran of the 1960s and 1970s searching for artworks that denounced women inequality issues. The artworks of several prominent women artists of the pre-revolution era will be probed and the lack of activism apparent in their works will be discussed. According to statistics before the 1979 Revolution almost 13% of women were in labor force. At this time, women were already able to vote, the practice of polygamy was outlawed, abortion was conditionally legalized, passport restrictions and divorce laws had improved; all to fit a more modern society. The state promoted participation of women in public space and encouraged a permissive society protecting many equal rights for women. This paper will demonstrate, as empowering as the state granted rights were for most women, themes and topics of women’s artworks reveal a timid attitude and a clear neglect to speak up against furthering women causes. A review of documented exhibitions and print media will indicate that no major art shows touched upon or promoted awareness of the various types of violence toward women, no crucial topic became the theme of any major exhibition to create empathy for women stories or give commentary on their un-equal institutionalized position; and most importantly there were no indications of any visual dialogues covering existing pervasiveness of unfair norms and customs or crimes in the name of “honor” in these modern exhibits. The artworks of several Western-educated women artists who returned to work in Iran, along with other trendsetter women artists of the time will be examined. These women artists regularly exhibited and were included in major national and international exhibits side by side with men. However, as much as their modern works were unique and commendable, the artworks demonstrate no awareness of the ongoing feminist art movement, no reflections on a long series of social injustices that could have been improved, no refusal to accept unequal social arrangements and no documented attempts to question the realities of a male-dominated culture. A multidisciplinary approach is incorporated in evaluating artworks in order to cover many aspects of art criticism.