The Politics of State Intervention: Gender Politics in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran examines how three culturally and religiously interconnected neighboring states have sought to regulate the lives of their female populace in order to gauge how successful, or unsuccessful, these efforts have been at the grassroots level. Utilizing a historical framework, it explores the gender specific policies of these states to assess whether or not shared cultural, religious, and social characteristics translate into similar gender policies and outcomes across borders, and if not, why. Through comparison, it conclusively identifies social and political roadblocks that threaten both the long term prospects and security for all females; as well as factors that tend to somewhat ameliorate detrimental tendencies.