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TobyBartels comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 24, chapter 95 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Jasmine, as a woman, is unable to command the Djinni? Obviously that wouldn't fly in a Disney production, but I can't recall any women commanding djinn in the Arabian Nights (not that I'm familiar with all of the stories); more generally, the women are pretty passive. (The exception, of course, is the framing story, but Scheherazade would find it unwise to put powerful, active, clever women in her stories.) The original story's Jasmine character (Badroulbadour) is actually pretty stupid.
In the original stories only powerful wizards can command djinn. The way non-wizards get access is by freeing a djinni whom a powerful wizard has trapped and the djinni granting wishes out of gratitude if he's in a good mood (and after being trapped for centuries the djinni isn't necessarily in a good mood). Also in neither story a djinn all-powerful.
That's true about the original original stories, but the djinn in the original Aladdin story[^1] were bound to their objects pretty much in the way that Disney treats their Genie. They still don't seem to be all-powerful; I agree about that.
[^1]: The original Aladdin story is centuries later than the original Arabian Nights. It is first attested in 18th-century French, although people do seem to accept that it came from an oral Arabian predecessor.