Amira Sonbol – författare

This study of modern Egypt opens the debate regarding new terms and methods for understanding the Middle East and Islamic societies. Amira el-Azhary Sonbol has produced an analytical history of Egypt from the time before Muhammad Ali to the present day. Using local idioms and terms such as khassa and 'amma, iltazim and fa'iz, she has developed a methodology that is more meaningful because it ties events of the eighteenth century to those of the twentieth.The author explores the division that has existed in modern Egyptian society between two groups: the khassa, a ruling elite that tried to impose a hegemonic culture that reflected and encouraged its own economic interests, and the 'amma, the masses who clung to their heritage and customs in an attempt to acquire a share of the wealth.Sonbol discusses today's Islamic movement in Egypt as a revolution correcting the duality of culture that was brought about by historical events like colonialism and the importation of exogenous ideologies. She suggests a different way of looking at culture and the necessity of seeing cultural struggle as a method for studying the historical process that goes beyond the political and economical.

An incisive study of the past, present, and future of Jordanian and Palestinian women women and issues of employment, education, human rights, Islamic law, and legal practice. Focusing specifically on Jordanian and Palestinian women, Amira El-Azhary Sonbol shows the legal constraints extant in a number of legal codes, 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 which extend the patriarchal power throughout an Arab and Muslim woman's life, and ultimately deny her full legal competency. Constitutions may declare all citizens equal before the eyes of the law, but labor, personal status, and criminal laws contradict this. Significantly, Sonbol notes that social acceptance of these laws as ""Islamic"" constitutes a major problem in any effort to change them - even though historically the Islamic Shari'a actually encourages women's work and throughout Islamic history Muslim women have contributed materially to their society's economy. In a book that will make an important contribution to the literature in the field Sonbol effectively illustrates how Jordanian laws controlling gender, family, and work combine with laws and legal philosophies derived from tribal, traditional, Islamic, and modern laws to form a strict patriarchal structure.