Egypt was the first country in the Middle East to experience the full impact of Westernization and the accompanying clash of ideologies, in the 1990s, few adhere to the notion that secular and Western-oriented regimes have advanced the case for women. This study is the first to examine the feminist issue in the context of Egypt's democratic crisis, faltering economy, and deteriorating sectarian relations.

Using Arabic sources, Ghada Hashem Talhami pursues an authentic, indigenous analysis and produces a cultural study bridging politics, religion, anthropology, and sociology.

Talhami examines the deliberate intensification of Islamic identity and its ramifications both for Muslim women and for Egypt's Coptic Christian minority. She pays careful attention to the Copts' mobilization of the '50s, '60s, and '70s and their clashes with Muslims, which led to Islamic redefinition of women's rights, and looks especially at the secular feminist reforms initiated by Jihan Sadat, the widow of Anwar Sadat.