The legal status of Muslim women is a complex and contentious topic that has engaged the state, women, and ʿulamaʾ in a dynamic debate. In pursuit of gender justice, reformist ʿulamaʾ and female activists are advocating policy reform through religious activism. This project investigates to what capacity Iranian women and reformist ʿulamaʾ are bridging the gap between Islamic jurisprudence and gender justice in the realm of Islamic Family Law (IFL). This study also explores the role women and ʿulamaʾ played in the progression and regression of women’s rights in IFL since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. This research contends reformist ʿulamaʾ and female activists have contributed to creating social, anthropological, and religious knowledge that engendered reformation of IFL in Shiʿi Iran. Since the Iranian Revolution, reformist ʿulamaʾ and female activists have recognized that the only reform that can be effective needs to be rooted in Islamic jurisprudential approaches. In Iran, female activists and the ʿulamaʾ have resorted to various strands of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) in an effort to interpret religious doctrines. There are currently two predominant types of jurisprudential traditions in practice that affect women’s legal status in the realm of IFL. The first type, which I refer to as “traditional jurisprudence” (fiqh-e taqlīdī), continues to advocate conventional precepts and enjoys majority support from traditionalist ʿulamaʾ. The second type of jurisprudential tradition, or the “renaissance” approach (fiqh-e tajdīdī), is traditional in nature but attempts to revive the legal pluralism of the tradition and is represented here by the work of reformist ʿulamaʾ and female activists. Through interviews and textual analysis, I highlight several factors that distinguish the reformists’ approach to gender equality from their traditional and secular counterparts. In the works of reformers who adhere to the fiqh-e tajdīdī tradition, there exists a major hermeneutical shift in Shiʿi legal theory that has a direct impact on women’s legal standing. This drive for reform, as well as the promise of greater adoption of the egalitarian principles of Islam, is at the center of this religious activism. Despite the belief that the state’s transformation following the Iranian Revolution led to regressive measures in women’s legal status, reformists have managed to improve the status of women in IFL over the years. The pressure and power that women, ʿulamaʾ, and the state exert on each other has caused Iran’s IFL to be more flexible compared to the family law systems of other Islamic states.