Women of Jordan: Islam, Labor, and the Law (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780815629641)

In the first book to address the dilemma faced by Jordanian women in the workforce, Amira El-Azhary Sonbol delineates the constraints that exist in a number of legal practices, namely penal codes that permit violence against Muslim women and personal status laws that require a husband's permission for a woman to work. Leniency in honor crimes and early marriage and motherhood for girls are other factors that extend the patriarchal power throughout a woman's life, and ultimately deny her full legal competency.

Significantly, Sonbol notes that society's accepting as "Islamic" the legal constraints that control women's work constitutes a major barrier to any effort to change them, even though historically the Islamic sharia actually encourages women's work, and despite the fact that Muslim women have contributed materially to their society's
economy.

The author covers new ground as she effectively illustrates how Jordanian laws governing gender, family, and work combine with laws and legal philosophies derived from tribal, traditional, Islamic, and modern laws to form a strict patriarchal structure.

Author: Amira El-Azhary Sonbol
ISBN-10: 0815629648
ISBN-13: 9780815629641
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Language: English
Published: 01/01/2003
Pages: 314
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.26lbs
Size: 10.58h x 5.34w x 0.90d