Introduction‪.‬

At the outset, I would like to thank Diana Fox, editor of the Journal of International Women's Studies for giving me the opportunity to edit this Special Issue. When she approached me to do a Special Issue on gender and Islam, I chose to focus on women in Asia for the reasons I discuss below. Teaching in the USA for over a decade and doing research and writing in the field of gender and Islam brought to my attention a gap in materials relating to this topic in Asia. When I decided to put a course together on women in Muslim countries, I discovered that there was no dearth of materials on women in the Middle East but very sparse (in comparison) materials on Muslim women's lives in Asia given that the majority of the world's Muslims reside in Asia. While talking of materials to put in a syllabus or to use for research I refer primarily to publications accessible in the West and published in English. The "selection" of what is accessible in the West itself is determined by the politics of the West and its interactions with the Muslim world, thus limiting vital resources that are produced in local languages and publishing houses. Politically, given the USA's historic relationship with the Middle East starting from the Crusades to the quest and control of oil through the rhetoric of "freedom and democracy" and "liberation of women," the status of Muslim women have become center stage in the denigration of Muslim states. This rhetoric has thus led to an emphasis on the Middle East in comparison to Asia where the rise in fundamentalist states have led to disempowerment of women and have therefore provided the USA with "evidence" to not only denounce such states but also to go to war against some of them. In light of these issues, an attempt has been made here to focus on the lives of Muslim women in Asia in countries that have a Muslim majority and a substantial Muslim minority too. This is in an attempt to decenter the western politically motivated discourse on the Middle East and to reflect on the heterogeneity of Muslim women's lives globally. From the responses to call for papers, it was interesting to observe the themes that emerged from different regions. Submissions were clustered around current political social and economic issues confronting women in these countries thus leading to multiple submissions on the same topic from one particular country, for example the topic of polygamy in Indonesia and garment workers in Bangladesh. I have chosen to include these articles because the authors approach these topics from different perspectives. The diversity of articles has enriched the dialogue on Muslim women and globalization, fundamentalism and nationalism in Asia. It has also brought to our attention how women empower themselves to reclaim their identity through their own interpretation of religious texts. The eclectic range of articles submitted defies the presumed homogeneity of Muslim women's lives and gives them an agency not usually acknowledged in the West.