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The Rights of Women in Islam: An Authentic Approach, by Haifaa A. Jawad. 150 pages, endnotes, bibliography, index. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. $45.00 (Cloth) ISBN 0-312-2135-4

Hoodfar's analysis is exceptional for a number of reasons. She succeeds admirably in her aim of demolishing the myth of the Middle Eastern family existing in a world steeped in religion, divorced from politics and economics. She is especially effective in overturning enduring images of the passivity and domination of women in Muslim societies. She does so without "romanticizing resistance." She avoids sensationalizing difficult issues. The brief section on genital cutting is one of the best I have come across. Unlike most contemporary ethnography, Between Marriage and the Market successfully combines the concerns of political economy and anthropology. Hoodfar encourages much needed conversations between development practitioners and feminist theorists. She argues persuasively— and in lucid, jargon-free language—for materially grounded, contextualized analyses that do not treat economy and culture as self-contained domains. Her ethnographic account works effectively to counter any linear narrative of modernity. Yet she seems to resist theorizing the meaning of cultural practices that are not self-evidently "practical." Nevertheless, Between Marriage and the Market is an excellent contribution to the literature on development studies, feminist theory, and the study of Muslim societies.