The essays collected in this book place this issue in its historical context and offer case studies of Muslim societies from North Africa to Southeast Asia. The volume as a whole militates against the stereotype of Muslim women as repressed, passive, and without initiative, while acknowledging the very real obstacles to women's initiatives in most of these societies.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-246) and index.

Women in Islam and Muslim societies / John L. Esposito -- Islam and gender : dilemmas in the changing Arab world / Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad -- Gender issues and contemporary Quran interpretation / Barbara Stowasser -- Islam, social change, and the reality of Arab women's lives / Nadia Hijab -- Feminism in an Islamic republic : "Years of hardship, years of growth" / Afsaneh Najmabadi -- Secularist and Islamist discourses on modernity in Egypt and the evolution of the postcolonial nation-state / Mervat Hatem -- Women and the state in Jordan: inclusion or exclusion? / Laurie A. Brand -- Slow yet steady path to women's empowerment in Pakistan / Anita M. Weiss -- Changing gender relations and the development process in Oman / Carol J. Riphenburg -- Women and religion in Bahrain : an emerging identity / May Seikaly -- Gender, Islam, and the state : Kuwaiti women in struggle, pre-invasion to postliberation / Margot Badran -- Philippine Muslim women : tradition and change / Vivienne SM. Angeles.