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This chapter shows how schools, in many respects, are also “disciplinary institutions,” with the purpose of molding young minds and shaping young bodies. In Bawadi al-Naseem, teachers and parents alike conceived of school as an extension of the family—as an allied social institution that, in addition to teaching academic subjects, was entrusted with the upbringing or tarbiyya of young women, according to a set of generally shared moral values. Most school officials took this responsibility quite seriously, and given the time girls spent in school, gender lessons at school were salient dimensions of their upbringing. Monitoring the behavior of students at al-Khatwa was not limited to teachers, however, as students too worked to keep the behavior of their peers in check. Indeed, both students and educators were actively engaged in defining the terms of gendered respectability through their everyday talk and practices.

The book starts with the story of Nada, an eleventh grader in the al-Khatwa Secondary School for Girls located in Bawadi al-Naseem. It is one of three high schools in the city, and it enrolls about six hundred students in grades 10 through 12. Most high school girls in Bawadi al-Naseem, Nada included, spend their days between home and school, making school an important space in their lives. Nada has lived in Bawadi al-Naseem all of her life and has studied at al-Khatwa since tenth grade. She is known among her friends as the peacemaker as she is always resolving disputes between friends. Nada studies hard and hopes to go to college, although it is unclear whether she can achieve this goal since her grades are not very strong.

This book concludes by presenting the many factors that limit and shape young women in Bawadi al-Naseem, Jordan—in particular, geography, economics, culture, and politics. Like many people in any other locale, however, they are not completely determined by these structures. Young women also actively engage in the making of their future possibilities—by getting good grades, by attracting the attention of young men who may marry them, by resisting the entreaties of potential suitors because they prefer to study, by teaching others about Islam, or by singing at musical performances on the king’s birthday. Young women do not act independently of their families’ counsel, but they are also not necessarily in conflict with them. They are products of the same environment and as such share many of the same beliefs and ideals.