Between Marriage and the Market takes the reader into the Muslim home for a rare and intimate glimpse of the modern-day Muslim family. An Iranian Muslim by birth, Homa Hoodfar investigates the lives of poor families in Cairo over the course of a decade's research, documenting an Arab culture seldom understood by outsiders. She goes beyond ideology and religion to show how marital politics and survival strategies play a key role in maintaining the cohesiveness of low-income families.

Poor women and their households, by adopting strategies to enhance marital security and by exercising control over their labor, consumption patterns, and fertility, achieve and maintain socioeconomic status. In this way, they also exercise far-reaching influence on Egyptian economy and society.