By Linda Hindi
AMMAN - Empowering women and stopping violence against them in a patriarchal society is no easy feat, but a social centre has found convincing allies: local male leaders.
The centre’s pilot project, “Men on Board”, has been working over the past two months to directly educate men on women’s rights.
Workers at the Community Development Centre (CDC) in Sweileh label the new approach “a huge success”.
The centre came up with the idea of targeting men after female members, who had completed a one-year awareness project on violence against women, suggested that the centre do something specifically for their husbands.
A programme development officer at the centre, Ruweida Shakhshir, explained that the programme is unique because incorporating men into gender-based violence projects is not uncommon, but to have an optional programme only for men poses the biggest challenge, “to actually get the men to attend”.
That’s where the community’s male leader, or mukhtar, came in, inviting the neighbourhood men for sessions at his home.
“I knew that this would work because when the mukhtar invites you to his home you do not say ‘no’,” the social worker added.
A mukhtar, "the chosen" in Arabic, refers to a figure in a village or urban neighbourhood who serves as a local community leader with some administrative authorities and reports to the governor’s office.
The mukhtar’s wife initially offered her home for the meetings, saying that she would have her husband invite the men, Shakhshir said.
The meetings are held in a relaxed atmosphere and refreshments are served. The goal is to make men listen and, in particular, learn about women’s rights in Islam. Giving the lessons is Sheikh Bassam Qawasmi, a cleric who has earned the trust of the women in the community after volunteering at the centre for several years, offering women a one-hour lecture four times a month on their rights in society and Islam.
“He has women who are devoted to his lectures and his information has changed some women’s lives. One very poor woman found out that she was entitled to her inheritance in Islam and contested her brothers in court.” As a result, she won half a dunum of land, which she sold and used to start an income-generating project that earns her JD500 a month, Shakhshir said.
Sheikh Qawasmi, who has a BA in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), told The Jordan Times that he is able to influence the men because he sits with them on their terms and cites the Holy Koran and hadith (Prophet’s tradition) to support his arguments.
“I am happy that I am dealing directly with the very group that have tough personalities and zero value for women. One man once told me that women are no different than animals and should be treated this way,” the cleric said. This is changing, he continued.
The programme facilitator explained that he stays calm and attacks their theories about respect, polygamy, equality and violence with clear Koranic verses and in-depth stories about the Prophet Mohammad and how he treated women in the highest regard.
He targets core issues like polygamy and teaches them the circumstances under which the Prophet married more than one woman. “They cannot use this as an excuse to marry women at their will or for selfish pleasures… there are specific reasons to remarry”.
“Most of the men are subdued and cannot retort when they hear that respecting their wives is a religious obligation. It affects them because they are not listening to something that I have made up; it is commandments from Allah, their God,” he said.
Her Majesty Queen Rania visited the CDC on Sunday during a trip to this north Amman town, highlighting issues that affect its 35,000 residents, most of whom are poor.
At the community centre, officials described their social programmes including the “Men on Board” project. Queen Rania took interest in the angle and said that more projects like these should be duplicated throughout the Kingdom.
“Violence against women is a sensitive subject that we must concentrate on and diminish from our society. It is very unfortunate that sometimes Islam is distorted or confused and used as an excuse to do wrong,” Queen Rania said.
The CDC is one of the six centres in the region run under the McGill University in Montreal, Canada. McGill’s programmes are primarily funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. The “Men on Board” project has been funded by the Washington-based Freedom House, a pro-democracy nonprofit organisation with international reach.
The centre is closely affiliated with the University of Jordan and works in partnership with the Jordan Red Crescent Society and the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development.
It currently runs 12 community development programmes, which directly affect between 15,000 to 20,000 underprivileged residents of the area annually.
