This text is an attempt to evaluate the extent to which gender analysis has succeeded in both informing and challenging established views of culture, society and literary production in the Middle East. Contributors from the fields of history, anthropology, political sociology, international relations and literary criticism illustrate how a focus on gender may modify our disciplinary perspectives, our understanding of the region and of feminist praxis within it. Their explorations, ranging from political discourse in Iran and inheritance strategies in Palestine to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, women's writing in Egypt, and methodological dilemmas in fieldwork, demonstrate how a focus on gender may act as a powerful tool of social criticism.