Patricia Jeffery is a sociologist with a distinguished record in the field of reproduction. Amrita Basu is a political scientist known for her research on fundamentalism in South Asia.

Part 1 Gender, Nation, State; Chapter 1 Appropriating Gender, Amrita Basu; Chapter 2 Reproducing the Legitimate Community, Ritu Menon; Chapter 3 (Re)presenting Islam, Feldman Shelley; Chapter 4 The Outsider(s) Within, Rouse Shahnaz; Chapter 5 Gender Politics, Legal Reform, and the Muslim Community in India, Zoya Hasan; Chapter 6 Woman, Community, and Nation, Tanika Sarkar; Part 2 The Everyday and the Local; Chapter 7 Women and Men in a Contemporary Pietist Movement, Barbara D. Metcalf; Chapter 8 Gender, Community, and the Local State in Bijnor, India, Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery; Chapter 9 The Other Side of the Discourse, Shaheed Farida; Part 3 Agency and Activism; Chapter 10 Hindu Women's Activism in India and the Questions It Raises, Amrita Basu; Chapter 11 Motherhood as a Space of Protest, Malathi De Alwis; Chapter 12 Women and Islamic Revivalism in a Bangladeshi Community, Gardner Katy; Chapter 13 Agency, Activism, and Agendas, Patricia Jeffery;

Appropriating Gender explores the paradoxical relationship of women to religious politics in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Contrary to the hopes of feminists, many women have responded to religious nationalist appeals; contrary to the hopes of religious nationalists, they have also asserted their gender, class, caste, and religious identities; contrary to the hopes of nation states, they have often challenged state policies and practices. Through a comparative South Asia perspective, Appropriating Gender explores the varied meanings and expressions of gender identity through time, by location, and according to political context.

The first work to focus on women's agency and activism within the South Asian context, Appropriating Gender is an outstanding contribution to the field of gender studies.