Women say discrimination and barriers still abound despite major reforms.
Abdullah Omar / The Media Line
[Amman, Jordan] Pleading to be re-united with her six-year-old daughter, Afaf could not help her tears from flowing down the thick layers of make-up covering her face.
The 23-year-old woman divorced her abusive husband after three years of marriage, taking advantage of some rare legislation that empowers women in this male dominated society and allows them to divorce their husbands.
"My family turned against me after I filed for divorce. Police were even supportive of my husband when I spoke out against him," Afaf told The Media Line.
Uneducated, married at the age of sixteen and divorced at nineteen, Afaf turned to prostitution.
"My husband used to beat me unconscious. He used to imprison me at home and if I complained to my family, they would tell me he is your husband and you must be patient," added Afaf, who lost custody of her daughter after the lawsuit against her husband.
Afaf said she tried to do many jobs, but was unable to keep one.
"When you take a decision to divorce your husband, the whole society stands against you," said Afaf, who has not seen her daughter for over a year.
A report on labor conditions in Jordan, published by the German based Friedrich Ebert Foundation, showed that at 14%, women’s participation in the labor market is one of the lowest in the region.
When the conservative parliament approved "kholou" law, which gave women equal power to divorce their husbands, human rights activists hailed the event as a major step forwards for women’s freedom.
The law was the culmination of pressures from international human rights organizations on agreements the kingdom signed, and support from Queen Rania, a renowned champion of women’s rights.
Over the past decade, women have seen their share in the political milieu double or treble. Women ministers have become a common scene when a cabinet is sworn in.
Current Prime minister Nader Dahabi selected four women to serve in his cabinet.
Recently, parliament approved legislation increasing the quota for women in parliament from 4 to 6 out of the 110-member house.
But for Afaf and many other Jordanian women, not all that glitters is gold.
"People here pretend to be liberal about women, but the truth is that women are not on an equal footing to men," said Hayfa Ali, a lawyer who deals with divorce cases.
"The fact that we need a law to enforce women's presence in parliament, reflects the magnitude of discrimination against women," said Ali, who admits the new legislation on divorce created more problems in the society.
In this conservative kingdom, the struggle for greater freedom has been bedeviled by a conservative parliament, which seeks to appease their tribal constituencies at the expense of women's rights.
To date, activists, supported by international human rights organisations have been unable to amend legislation in the penal code, which makes it easy for men to kill women in the name of honor.
Parliament, dominated by former generals and conservative tribal leaders, has frustrated all attempts to introduce the death penalty against premeditated crimes against women suspected of immoral behavior.
A judicial source who requested anonymity, admitted the law makes it hard for them to impose tough sentences on killers, but he says change is coming.
"Courts no longer take an automatic conviction against killers in the name of honor. A change is happening, but it will be a long process," the judicial source told the Media Line.
Every year between 15-20 women are killed in the name of honor. Killers often get between three months to three years.
When the government approved an article in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), granting women freedom of mobility and choice of residence without consent of male family members, activists felt they created yet another crack in the solid wall blocking progress in their quest for a better life for women.
The government reluctantly took the provocative decision to approve the article, which defies deeply rooted social taboos, triggering a nationwide debate about family values and how far women’s rights can progress.
The move drew the condemnations of MPs from the southern and northern parts, dominated by influential Jordanian tribes and from the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Activists at the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the most influential party in the kingdom, warned "Families in Jordan face the threat of total collapse under CEDAW," according to a recently released statement.
Former IAF Secretary General Zaki Bani Rsheid took a swipe at the government for ratifying the agreement on its own.
"The government should have conducted a genuine national dialogue with all segments of society. They should have dealt with this matter based on its social and future dimensions, not its international and financial dimensions," he said.
Islamist activists believe a national dialogue on this highly sensitive issue is a must.
"We do not want to impose our views on the government, but the government should also not impose its views on society, particularly when things have to do with the destiny of the family," said Ali Abdullah, an Islamist activist and Imam of a mosque on the outskirts of Amman.
As activists continue striving for more rights for women, physical and psychological abuse continues, often under the approval of women.
In July, top religious leaders issued a fatwa, or religious decree, that banned virginity testing, imposed by families of grooms on brides ahead of planned weddings.
A member of the National Religious council said the testing is "a gruesome demonstration of the deteriorating rights of women in the kingdom."
"The human body, both male and female, is sacred. It should not be violated in such ways to appease a suspecting husband," said the member, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“Women should not be treated in such a heinous manner by their future husbands or families,” said the council member, noting that the decree was issued after the number of women tested for purity skyrocketed.
Officials at the National Centre for Forensic Medicine said they no longer deal with requests for virginity tests, but the act is widely practiced in private clinics, which provide an answer to doubting husbands.
Afaf has joined a local human rights group in the hope they can re-unite her with her daughter. But she is adamant never to return to her husband.
"I know how it feels to be free. I will never return to my husband even if that means I lose my daughter," said the visibly shaken woman. Source www.themedialine.org
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