A founding text of transnational feminismFor twenty-five years Feminism and Nationalism in the
Third World has been an essential primer on the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
history of women's movements in Asia and the Middle East. In this engaging and well-researched
survey Kumari Jayawardena presents feminism as it originated in the Third World erupting from
the specific struggles of women fighting against colonial power for education or the vote for
safety and against poverty and inequality.Journalist and human rights activist Rafia Zakaria's
foreword to this new edition is an impassioned letter in two parts: the first to Western
feminists the second to feminists in the Global South entreating them to use this compendium
of female courage as a bridge between women of different nations.Feminism and Nationalism in
the Third World was chosen as one of the top twenty Feminist Classics of this Wave 1970-1990
by Ms. magazine and won the Feminist Fortnight Award in the UK.
