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During the past forty years, South Asia has been the location and the focus of dynamic, important feminist scholarship and activism. In this collection of essays, prominent feminist scholars and activists build on that work to confront pressing new challenges for feminist theorizing and practice. Examining recent feminist interventions in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, they address feminist responses to religious fundamentalism and secularism; globalization, labor, and migration; militarization and state repression; public representations of sexuality; and the politics of sex work. Their essays attest to the diversity and specificity of South Asian locations and feminist concerns, while also demonstrating how feminist engagements in the region can enrich and advance feminist theorizing globally. Contents: South Asian Feminisms: Contemporary Interventions / Ania Loomba and Ritty A. Lukose * I. Feminism, Religion, and the Secular * From Shah Bano to Kausar Bano: Contextualizing the "Muslim Woman" within a Communalized Polity / Flavia Agnes * Global Discourses, Situated Traditions, and Muslim Women's Agency in Pakistan / Amina Jamal * Martial Tales, Right-Wing Hindu Women, and "History Telling" in the Bombay Slums / Atreyee Sen * II. Feminism, Labor, and Globalization * Of Moments, Not Monuments: Feminism and Labor Activism in Postnational Sri Lanka / Sonali Perera * Feminism, Migration, and Labor: Movement Building in a Globalized World / Anannya Bhattacharjee * III. Feminism, War, Peace * Uncomfortable Alliances: Women, Peace, and Security in Sri Lanka / Vasuki Nesiah * Feminist Politics and Maternalist Agonism / Malathi de Alwis * Witnessing as Feminist Intervention in India-Administered Kashmir / Angana P. Chatterji * IV. Feminism, Figuration, and the Politics of Reading and Writing * Transnational Politics of Reading and the (Un)making of Taslima Nasreen / Lamia Karim * At the Intersection of Gender and Caste: Rescripting Rape in Dalit Feminist Narratives / Laura Brueck * Subject to Sex: A Small History of the Gomantak Maratha Samaj / Anjali Arondekar * V. Feminism, Sex Work, and the Politics of Sexuality * Keeping Sexuality on the Agenda: The Sex Workers' Movement in Bangladesh / Firdous Azim * Politicizing Political Society: Mobilization among Sex Workers in Sonagachi, India / Toorjo Ghose * Queering Approaches to Sex, Gender, and Labor in India: Examining Paths to Sex Worker Unionism / Ashwini Sukthankar * VI. Feminist Crisis and Futures Hecklers to Power? The Waning of Liberal Rights and Challenges to Feminism in India / Ratna Kapur * A Global Perspective on Gender: What's South Asia Got to Do with It? / Mrinalini Sinha |