ABSTRACT The Other Women: Iran’s Mighty and Marginalized Secular state reforms during the rule of the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79) in Iran aimed to modernize the country, liberate women, and make them more equal to men. Theoretically, the state’s feminist policy was all-encompassing but in practice it marginalized a large majority of women as the state forcefully removed their hijab and allowed those who accepted such changes to progress, which left millions of females behind. This large group of females, which I refer to as the “other women,” were marginalized because of the secular nature of the reforms that disregarded their cultural sensitivities as they did not appreciate the Western model of change that the state practiced. The “other women” came either from poor, highly religious (Twelver Shiites), small town and rural areas, and in many cases they were non-Persian (e. g. Arabs, Azeris, Kurds). In this paper, I discuss how these “other women” took an active role in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), and consequently changed its outcome. Additionally, I will explain how this group of women simultaneously challenged their ascribed gender roles and expectations. This is significant because their participation in the war took place while the theocratic regime demonstrated its highly repressive stance toward women through judicial and social policies while promoting its “Islamic” agenda limiting women’s social engagement only to the interior of their homes. Sources used in this study are women war participants’ memoirs, interviews, and unpublished accounts of their involvement in the war. The continuing women’s struggle against the Iranian government’s repressive treatment of women despite their important role in the war makes this a relevant subject.