Still some way to go

Jordan, along with the international community, has just marked the International Women’s Day, with human rights groups reiterating their commitment to giving women equal treatment and according to them the right to share power in the government as well as in the private sector.

The government says it has done all that was necessary to give women their dues and that it has amended laws to that effect.

Listening to the government assurances, one gets the impression that all is fine and dandy when it comes to women rights, and that nothing more needs to be done.

Yet women rights advocates — and not only they — and various women associations say otherwise.

The Jordan National Commission for Women, the Jordan Women Association and the Jordan Human Rights Society, among other actors working in the field of human rights in the country, believe the claim that big inroads were made, often citing examples of how the rhetoric fails to be matched by deeds and reality.

When women occupy less than 20 per cent of Parliament seats, constitute less than 10 per cent of Cabinet ministers and make up less than 5 per cent of business leaders, there is a big question mark about how hard the country has worked to give a say to women.

When Article 308 of the Penal Code allows rapists to escape punishment by marrying their victims, when mothers have yet to be allowed to pass their citizenship on to their children, just like fathers are, Jordan still has a long way to go before it can claim that women are equal to men.

And when men can still divorce their wives by the stroke of a pen — or the more incredible utterance of the intent to divorce three times, which would be funny if it weren’t true and serious — and when girls are allowed to marry at the tender age of 15 — granted, under certain circumstances, as the age was raised to 18 recently — there is every reason to rebut the claim that women and girls have attained their full rights.

The best way to celebrate women, on a designated day and every day, is to appraise the situation, admit that there is still a long way  to go before we can be proud of the occasion, and start taking the first steps on the road to equality, with tried and tested international covenants and laws guiding the way.