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This chapter uses data from a commissioned nationwide sample survey of some 1,100 female-headed households, as well as from focus groups with female household heads. Women-headed households constitute about one-tenth of Jordan's households. By region of residence, religion, and household size they differ little from households in the country at large. But nearly half of them (48 percent) are living below the poverty line, compared with about 13 percent in the population at large. Their annual spending is less than one-third of the nationwide average. Very few of the women household heads work outside the home: 78 percent of them are not and have never been employed. Their education levels are low: about 54 percent are either illiterate or have only basic schooling, and about 27 percent have secondary education. The problems faced by women household heads include malnutrition (a problem in nearly one in five of these families); social stigma attached to themselves and their children; problems in rearing their sons, many of whom drop out of school and become socially withdrawn; and pressures from their own or their husband's family. Recommendations are made for policies and other measures to assist female-headed households.

Forensic accounting is a modern occupation that covers many services, including fraud investigation, IT forensics, litigation support, and business valuation. Few, if any, have come across forensic accounting based on an Islamic perspective. The religion of Islam ascribes to a wide spectrum of the highest morals and virtues. Our research involved a review of the previous research on forensic accounting, and we benchmarked it to the Islamic Sharia and law within the Jordanian context. The findings show that Islamic perspectives would lend robust foundations to forensic accounting in its endeavors to detect and prevent fraud and assist the trier of fact. This chapter contributes to the previous literature on forensic accounting by providing an optimal set of Islamic concepts that might be of benefit to forensic accounting practitioners, academics, and regulators.

Jordan is a small country with fewer natural resources than neighbouring countries. The financial crisis, regional turbulences, along with increasing food, power and oil prices have all put substantial pressure on Jordan’s economy. Furthermore, Jordan has been faced with rising unemployment rates that have worsened with the influx of Syrian refugees. Jordan has made important progress in promoting the country’s economic infrastructure, aided by openness to foreign trade and investments. Still, government services and finance are the main contributors to Jordan’s gross domestic product (GDP) and neither of these can be considered engine of economic growth. An enhancement of the macroeconomic and fiscal stability of Jordan through increased government revenues and the development of a diversified and competitive national economy are required.

The growing interest in studying and researching women’s entrepreneurship in Jordan is welcomed as the Kingdom continues to grapple with one of the lowest rates in the world for women’s entrepreneurship, and one of the highest rates for unemployment. To better understand the opportunities, challenges, and prospects for women entrepreneurs in Jordan, this chapter covers the past, present, and future of women entrepreneurs in Jordan. This is achieved by first presenting a contextual overview of Jordan and a historical overview of the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Kingdom. Secondly, a discussion of the current and maturing entrepreneurial ecosystem, and how it relates to women entrepreneurs operating in the Kingdom, is presented. Third, and finally, the chapter offers a set of potential prospects for the future of women entrepreneurs in Jordan. In doing so, the chapter highlights that the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Jordan began with a “gender neutral” approach assuming that men and women entrepreneurs shared the same barriers, challenges, and opportunities. However, as it developed, there was a growing awareness of the lack of engagement from women entrepreneurs, which led to an awareness of gendered barriers to women’s entrepreneurship and business growth. Strategies and remedies have been activated to address this, but this could be too little, too late.

Since quaternions have isomorphic representations in matrix form we investigate various well known matrix decompositions for quaternions.