Gender is not essentially a factor bringing about difference in punishment but there are differences discerned in this regard in Islam’s legal system hence the current regulations of Islamic Republic of Iran. These distinctions can be summarized in three sets: difference in the type and amount of punishment, difference in exemption of punishment and difference in the enforcement of punishment. In criminal titles, there are identified crimes that are specific to a certain gender and the men and women do not enjoy similar status in terms of the age of criminal liability in such a way that the women’s criminal liability begins in an earlier age than the men’s. As for atonement and acceptance of atonement payment for another person, the conditions are not equal and the women cannot be considered as individuals responsible for the others’ atonement. In regard of mitigation and intensification of the punishment, the gender plays a considerable role and the punishment mitigation cases of each have been clearly specified in comparison to another. Crime substantiation and punishment infliction are topics wherein being a woman or man is not devoid of effect. The present study uses library method to collect the data. In this research, the legal articles in which such terms as “men” and “women” have been used and the differences that have been created in terms of granting right and obligation and exertion and enforcement of punishments and the methods of crime substantiation, have been identified, extracted and classified so that misperceptions regarding the natural superiority of men over women can be corrected by informing the reader about the existent trivial differences in criminal issues that are to be envisaged normal considering the inherent and psychological conditions. It has also been found out in the present study that the legislator has been lenient in prescribing punishments for women, in some of the cases, and for men, in some other cases.
