Between Marriage and the Market: Intimate Politics and Survival in Cairo

by Homa Hoodfar

Homa Hoodfar's richly detailed ethnography provides a rare glimpse into the daily life of Arab Muslim families. Focusing on the impact of economic liberalization policies from 1983 to 1993, she shows the crucial role of the household in survival strategies among low-income Egyptians. Hoodfar, an Iranian Muslim by birth, presents research that undermines many of the stereotypes associated with traditional Muslim women. Their apparent conservatism, she says, is based on rational calculation of the costs and benefits of working within formal and informal labor markets to secure household power. She posits that increasing adherence to Islam and taking up the veil on the part of women has been partially motivated by women's desire to protect and promote their interests both within and beyond households.

Genres: Sociology, History, Cultural, Nonfiction, Egypt, Anthropology

322 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a class, and normally I don't include those books in with my "reading for pleasure" books. But this was a very good book. It is a real look inside the lives of men and women in Cairo. Even though it was an assignment, I enjoyed reading this book very much.

[DoctorM · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine work of sociological research by an Iranian woman doing research in lower-class neighbourhoods in 1980s Cairo. Hoodfar looks at the way marriages are constructed, and how women try to use marriage and kinship and neighbourhood ties to maximise economic chances. Hoodfar points out that marriage in lower-class Cairo is becoming less "Western" as women insist on detailed marriage contracts and higher bride-gifts from their husbands' families to protect against being left without resources in a society where male employment opportunities have dwindled and the male right to almost at-will divorce remains in law and custom. She also looks at the impact of migration--- the outflow of Egyptian males to jobs in the Gulf ---and how the absence of so many males effects both the age of marriage and the relative status of women within relationships.

A well-done and sympathetic look at the "intimate politics" of lower-class marriage and networks in a society where more and more families are left without state support or formal employment opportunities.