A feminist content analysis of writings and speeches of two main political figures of the Islamic government of Iran, Khomeini and Ahmadinejad, demonstrates the centrality of discourses around gender in their use of anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and nationalist narratives. Essentialist beliefs about gender and the symbolic meaning of gender as social order and the "natural law of the universe" are the notions embedded in Khoemini and Ahmadinejad's narratives to suggest that changes in traditional gender relations are a threat to the order of the society. This study of dominance also reveals how the dominant culture produced by the Islamic state grasps on to the cultural elements of hegemonic discourse to bond coercion with legitimacy. Creating moral panics around changes in traditional gender relations and traditional definitions of femininity and masculinity is the main character of political speeches around women's issues and women's rights of these two figures. According to these narratives, femininity and gender "ideals" such as chastity, devotional motherhood, and women's role in maintaining the basis of the structure of the family are pivotal to the protection of the nation, its independence and its future.