How does one become a man or a woman? What does it mean to be or become --or to fail to be or become --a man or a woman? Which practices, ideas and institutions gender our bodies? How does one become a man or woman in different cultures? How does gender shape the human experience of belonging to a community? How do power relations inhere in gender as a social institution? In this broad-ranging survey of the study of women, gender and sexuality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), we will explore the main concepts and themes of scholarly research in the humanities and social sciences during the last century, focusing on gender in regions where there are significant Muslim communities.