During the Pahlavi era, for the first time, the state sought to exert authority over individuals’ bodies, removing them from the confines of religious and traditional control. This attempt by the government to intervene in this domain became one of the most central and contentious issues of the period, sparking significant conflicts both during and after the Pahlavi rule. Adopting a Foucauldian perspective, this study examines the issues and tensions that arose from the surveillance and regulation of the body—particularly women’s bodies—under the Pahlavi monarchy. With this in mind, the article analyzes the socio-political context and content of selected publications from both the First and Second Pahlavi periods to address the question: “How did the body and its regulation under the Pahlavi regime become a political matter, triggering widespread conflict?” The hypothesis of this research is that the state and modernist elites’ efforts to exercise “control over the body” eroded traditional barriers, marginalized traditional authority figures in this domain, and provoked resistance from Islamists seeking to defend the achievements of Islamic tradition.