The Changing Middle Eastern Family : Competing Ideologies and Domestic Life in Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia

Offering a wide array of scholarly perspectives, "The Changing Middle Eastern Family" examines the global spread of developmental ideals about family and society, and their impact on the daily lives of families in three countries - Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia - reflecting very different political histories, cultural milieus, and legal systems.

Drawing on surveys and interviews, it reveals the responses of ordinary people - including their acceptance of, adaptation to, and rejection of ideas about marriage, divorce, women's education, childbirth, and family life. "The Changing Middle Eastern Family" fills major gaps in social research on family life in North Africa and the Middle East, and highlights the influence of ideas - rather than simply economic or political forces - on historical family change.

In essays spanning several disciplines, including anthropology, demography, history, and sociology, this volume documents a variety of ways in which individuals have filtered and responded to global ideals about family and nation to which they have been exposed.