In the four Arab communities of this study the position of women varies considerably, both with regard to their influence in domestic and political affairs and in their social relationships with men. Islamic laws and traditions are frequently evoked to account for behaviour among Muslims, particularly behaviour between the sexes, and, since much scholarship on Arabs has until recently been drawn from literary sources, the weight given to the determining influence of Islamic culture has been considerable. Indeed, the uninformed impression in the West is still that all Arab women occupy a position of unmitigated servility: they are completely dominated by their men and kept out of sight most of the time, only to appear in public when they are completely veiled.

The four kinds of Arab communities examined here include the Bedouin of Cyrenaica (Libya), where the people are Sunni Muslims; a horticultural community of Shiite Muslims in south Lebanon; olive farmers, Sunni Muslims, in a plantation area in Tripolitania (Libya); and a Maronite Christian village in central Lebanon.

Among the Bedouin, women are excluded from inheritance, whether as wives or daughters. Their domestic status is high, and the veil is only situational, though women are excluded from the company of men in public. Politically, their status is high, and marriage alliances are crucial, although women have virtually no direct say in the choice of spouses. Women among the Lebanese horticulturalists inherit both as wives and daughters, and although marriage constitutes an alliance of sorts, its main effect is on the redistribution of plots of land rather than on political groupings.