This book takes on fundamental questions at the intersections of gender, sexuality, and the body. Several questions frame the volume: How does studying gender and sexuality expand and enrich our understanding of Muslim-majority countries, historically and at present? How does the embodiment of ’Muslim’ identity get reconfigured in the context of twenty-first-century globalism? What analytical questions are raised about ’Islam’ when its diverse meanings and multifaceted expressions are closely examined? What roles do gender and sexuality play in the construction of cultural, religious, nationalistic, communal, and militaristic identities? How have power struggles been signified in and on the bodies of women and sexuality?
This book highlights major concepts that organizewomen's and genderstudies: Knowledges, Identities, Equalities, Bodies, Places, and Representations. Its focus on 'the everyday' speaks to the importance this book places on students understanding the taken-for granted circumstances of their daily lives. In addition to exploring each concept in detail, each chapter includes up to five short recently published readings that illuminate an aspect of that concept.