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This book analyzes perceptions of self, power, agency, and gender of Muslim women in a rural community of Bangladesh. Rural women´s limited power and agency has been subsumed within the male dominated Islamic discourses on gender. However, many Muslim women have their own alternative discourses surrounding power and agency. Sarwar Alam intertwines an exploration of these power dynamics with reading of the Qur´an and Hadith, and analyzes how Muslim women´s perception of power and gender are linked to their relationship with religion.

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Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Geography and Demography Chapter 3: Self, Identity, and Individuality Chapter 4: Women´s Perceptions of Agency and Power Chapter 5: Sources of Power and Agency Chapter 6: Barriers to Women´s Power and Agency Chapter 7: Construction of Gender and Gender Ideology Chapter 8: Conclusion

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Sarwar Alam is a lecturer at the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies of the University of Arkansas, USA.

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