Alice Kang is an assistant professor in the department of political science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She received her B.A. in Economics and International Relations from Brown University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has published on global trends in women's political representation, women's activism in Africa, and the gendered consequences of oil production. Lecture details: Gender equality in predominantly Muslim countries has been in a state of intense debate over the past decades. Scholars from a variety of perspectives have examined these debates, with some concluding that women are less likely to gain equality in Muslim-majority countries—particularly poor, agrarian countries—as long as men and women remain attached to what they call Islamic doctrine and traditional values. Others point to the agency of female Muslim artists, political party activists, religious scholars, and workers. Others still differentiate between authoritarian Muslim-majority states that collude with religious and traditional leaders and those that do not. Yet few have examined contestation over women’s rights in Muslim democracies. This study focuses on conflict over women’s rights in the Republic of Niger and finds that how civil society mobilizes and the domestic political context are central to understanding women’s rights debates.