STOP THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN Women’s Day 2009: Celebrating Women’s role in a Changing Society

On International Women’s Day, ACHRS would like to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women.  This is the occasion to stress the importance of gender equality to create societies based on justice principles.

Here in the Arab Countries, and worldwide we are witnesses to many kinds of discrimination against women.  In 50% of the world’s countries legislation still permits forms of legal gender-based discrimination. In the legal system, women experience discrimination in matters of pension and social security benefits, inheritance, divorce, ability to travel, child custody, citizenship, and the value of their Shari’a court testimony in certain limited circumstances.  In addition to this, women face discrimination in practice. Worldwide, women are paid less than men for the same jobs and social pressures often discourage many women from pursuing professional careers.

ACHRS strongly believes that the institutional discrimination of women is one of the main causes for the social and economic problems of the Arab region.

This is the reason why we are calling for an improvement in the social status of women and the eradication of legal discrimination – in theory and practice.

Despite some positive developments with regard to the limited rights of women in Jordan, we would still like to point out some critical aspects. Firstly, although in 2007 the Jordanian government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), it kept the reservations of 1992, when it initially ratified the Convention. Furthermore, there are still restrictions on freedom of housing and accommodation for women. Article 37 of the Code of Personal Status reads that "the wife must obey the husband and move to live with him wherever he wants". Nor can women yet demand divorce, due to the government’s refusal to amend the existing law from 2006.  However, men, as Muslims in Jordan, are entitled to a maximum of four wives at one time (though there are some controls on the first marriage.)  

2008 saw more positive development, whereby a new law on domestic violence was ratified, but there is still the issue of ‘honour killings’ not being addressed by law. The perpetrators stand not as common criminals, but benefit from the “extraordinary circumstances” clause in the Penal Code (Article 98), allowing the accused to take the role of a ‘hero’ who defends the ‘honour’ of the family. The endangered women are jailed for their protection, and their release can only be granted by one of her male relatives. The detained women are eventually transferred to a ‘home shelter,’ or ‘Dar Al-Wefaq,’ of which in Jordan there are currently 3, totalling 100 spaces for detainees.

Some positive aspects, though limited, can be elicited from the fact that there are a number of women ministers in government and judicial positions.  This is perhaps due to the ‘quota policy’ implemented by Article IV of CEDAW which dictates that there must be a certain percentage of women in represented in party and election law activities.  However these percentages are still quite small and quite arbitrary.

We believe that women’s role as decision makers and leaders needs to be supported and increased, by enforcing women’s capacity to understand and claim their rights and by encouraging initiatives run by women.  Women should become the protagonists of a deeper social change.

ACHRS would like to renew its strong commitment to strengthening women’s rights in Jordan and across the MENA region.  Therefore, ACHRS is making an urgent call to join efforts with other Arab countries, and countries all around the globe, to strive for a world free from violations against women.  For only when we fully achieve women’s rights and gender equality will we have truly achieved human rights.