This book explores the relations of culture, identity, and women, providing vivid illustrations from around the world of the compelling nature of Woman as cultural symbol and Woman as political pawn in male-directed power struggles.

Part One: Theoretical, Comparative, and Historical Perspectives 1. Introduction: Women and Identity Politics in Theoretical and Comparative Perspective 2. The Creation of the World We Know: The World Economy and the Re-creation of Gendered Identities 3. The Ideal Woman and the Ideal Society: Control and Autonomy in the Construction of Identity 4. Gender as an Ethno-Marker: Rape, War, and Identity Politics in the Former Yugoslavia 5. Women of the West Imagined: The Farangi Other and the Emergence of the Woman Question in Iran Part Two: Country Case Studies 6. Politics, Islam, and Women in Kano, Northern Nigeria 7. Gender, Religious Identity, and Political Mobilization in Sudan 8. Feminism and Muslim Fundamentalism: The Tunisian and Algerian Cases 9. he Social Representation of Women in Algeria's Islamist Movement 10. Gender Activism: Feminists and Islamists in Egypt 11. Identity Politics and Women: "Fundamentalism" and Women in Pakistan 12. Moving Away from a Secular Vision? Women, Nation, and the Cultural Construction of Hindu India 13. Identity Politics and the Contemporary Indian Feminist Movement 14. Women and Fundamentalism: The Case of Turkey 15. Halakha, Zionism, and Gender: The Case of Gush Emunim 16. The Role, Place, and Power of Middle-Class Women in the Islamic Republic 17. Paradoxical Politics: Gender Politics Among Newly Orthodox Jewish Women in the United States 18. Women of the New Right in the United States: Family, Feminism, and Politics Part Three: Dilemmas and Strategies 19. The Preferential Symbol for Islamic Identity: Women in Muslim Personal Laws 20. Identity Politics and Women's Ethnicity 21. International Standards of Equality and Religious Freedom: Implications for the Status of Women