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In the light of postmodern debates in anthropology, ethnography offers anthropologists new ways of representing their objects of study. The politics involved in the production and consumption by feminist scholars and activists of women's representations in the Arab world, and Egypt specifically, provides the starting point of this article. Using an ethnographic text examining manifestations of 'Islamic Feminism' in Egypt, I explore problems in addressing the subject of veiling – a continuous favourite among researchers. Grappling with stereotypes, assumptions and pre-interpretations based on what we read before going to the field and the questions we formulate in our minds, I look towards strategies of engagement with research subjects where anthropologists can express their commitments to them. Research ethics and reflexivity offer no formulaic guarantees of better representations, but pave the way towards understanding one's motivations and urges ethnographers to examine the impact of their work, both on the immediate community, and with regard to larger power politics. Given the fluid nature of identities and the relative fixedness of representations, solutions do not appear in abundance. Working outside of unnecessary dichotomies and searching for incongruities presents interesting possibilities for future ethnographic research.

Today, there is almost no field into which Egyptian women have not ventured, yet their status in society remains unequal to that of men. While many factors account for the prevailing gender gap, male-dominated institutions have continued to relegate women's concerns to a low priority, impeding their progress. This monograph contends that recent public discourse in Egypt is dominated by the conservative polemics of the Islamists and that the state, in its attempt to contain the Islamists, has subordinated women's issues to its own concerns for security and legitimacy. Renewed appeals urging women to retreat to the private sphere and the appearance of the Islamic attire reflect the blurring of boundaries between the secular and the religious. The present condition of Egyptian women is summarized in this monograph as a prelude to illustrating how women's issues continue to be relegated to a subordinate position for political expediency. The concluding chapter presents resistance strategies that a number of civil society organizations are adopting to create alternative discourses that give women their rightful positions in the private and public spheres.