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 husbands 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 womans life, and ultimately deny her full legal competency.Significantly, Sonbol notes that societys accepting as Islamic the legal constraints that control womens work constitutes a major barrier to any effort to change them, even though historically the Islamic sharia actually encourages womens work, and despite the fact that Muslim women have contributed materially to their societyseconomy.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.