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This chapter explores the sur al-Lawati, the fortified enclave of the al-Lawati, a non-Arab, non-Ibadi mercantile community historically oriented toward the British Raj, staunchly allied to the pre-1970 Muscat sultanate, and grounded in a Shiʿi geography. This community has been incorporated into Oman's national historical narration and iconic imagery. Their differences to the Arab and Ibadi population are managed through the state's governing logics of a common history and tribalization, even while these institutional mechanisms apportion the space in which one emerges as an Omani citizen. This dense assemblage of key elements both limits and opens possibilities for political engagement and participation in state planning and policy making. These terms of reference formulate the space in which the “differences” that sum up the al-Lawati are managed within the community and with outsiders, defining the terms of their political and religious belonging and the referential basis by which they participate in public life (outside the sur) versus private life (inside the sur).

This concluding chapter describes how the Iraqi women's rights activists believe that the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq were pulling back to the days of the British-backed Hashemite monarchy, when women were treated as second-class citizens. It marks similar threads running through past British and present American policies influencing the fate of two generations of Iraqi women separated by half a century. Under the Americans who came to Iraq armed with a vision of creating a free and democratic state in which women's rights are enshrined, women were returned to pre-1958 conditions, which led to a new wave of tribalization and subordination. Similar to as in the Hashemite period, the American occupational forces were desperate to impose order. They recruited tribal elements to secure borders and protect oil facilities, and convened tribal courts that sanctioned coercive practices pertaining to women.

This chapter discusses the globalization and tribalization of the beauty industry in the twenty-first century. Over the last two decades, the spread of megabrands lent support to a view that globalization was continuing the homogenization of beauty ideals which had been under way since the nineteenth century. French and American brands remained the benchmark of aspiration. Yet globalization now also seemed to work in the opposite direction, serving to diffuse alternative and local beauty ideals. Companies now saw opportunities to take, say, Chinese and Indian beauty concepts to Western markets, and they had the marketing and logistical capabilities to execute such strategies. Changing demographics and societal values also led firms to pursue new markets, including ethnic minorities, pre-teens, and seniors.