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ARTICLES

Liberating Women with Islam? The Islamists and Women's Issues in Jordan

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Pages 359-378 | Published online: 22 Jan 2011
 

Abstract

The question of where Jordanian Islamists stand on women's rights has generated a great deal of attention over the past few years. An analysis of recent shifts in gender relations and hierarchies within the Jordanian Islamic movement (namely the Muslim Brothers and their political wing the Islamic Action Front and the Islamic Centrist Party) reveals that over the past three decades their views on women's rights have shifted towards embracing a much wider and more visible participation of women in the public space and within the movement itself. This suggests that engaging Islamists in political processes helps a great deal in ‘detraditionalizing’ them. However, since 2003, the women's movement, supported by the Jordanian government, has aggressively promoted a CEDAW‐based discourse on rights that has challenged the Islamists to develop a more explicit discourse on women's rights. The new discourse is distinct in being promoted by women as well as men of the movement. This discourse is not entirely consistent with the above‐stated shifts and reveals a rejection of the body of rights suggested by CEDAW. Our analysis of the reaction to the CEDAW‐based discourse on women's rights shows that the Islamists base their opposition to CEDAW on an argument which states that Islam is concerned with justice rather than equality, yet this argument has not been consistently applied across a number of different issue areas, undermining the position of Islamists with regard to women's rights. The overall conclusion of the analysis is that definite change has occurred with regard to the role and status of women in Jordanian society through the activities of the women's movement and efforts to politically engage Islamists on this issue. Yet these changes remain precarious, as the views of Islamist political parties continue to border on traditionalism.

Notes

1The coverage of Salafi and Jihadi groups is beyond the purpose of this paper. For an elaborate analysis of these movements see Q.Wiktorowicz, ‘The Salafi Movement In Jordan’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 32:2 (2000), pp. 219–240. Cambridge University Press Stable, http://www.jstor.org/stable/259592 (last accessed on 17 September 2010). Also see C. Rayan, ‘Islamists Political Activism in Jordan: Moderation, Militancy, and Democracy’, MERIA, 12:2 (2010), http://www.meriajournal.com/en/asp/journal/2008/june/ryan/index.asp

2T. Al‐Faisal, ‘They Insult Us … and We Elect Them!’, in Mahnaz Afkhami (ed.), Faith and Freedom (London: I. B. Tauris, 1995), pp. 232–237.

3L. Brand, Women, the State, and Political Liberalization (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), p. 83.

4Ibid.

5These provisional laws included the Personal Status and Nationality Laws and the Penal Code.

6R. Sarayreh, ‘Amenh Zoubi: Violence against Women is the Challenge to Women's Advancement in Jordan’, Alghad, 21 August 2010.

7Article 15/paragraph 4 of CEDAW reads: ‘States parties shall accord to men and women the same rights with regard to the law relating to the movement of persons and the freedom to choose their residence and domicile’ (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women website).

8A. Khateeb, ‘Jordan Islamists vs. UN women's rights bill’, Agence France Presse, 23 August 2010.

9H. Messimi, personal interview, 25 March 2010.

10Ibid.

11Ibid.

12R. Riyalat, personal interview, 6 April 2010.

13H. Messimi, personal interview

14The exact number of Jordanian people from a Palestinian background is unknown.

15Sraryreh, op. cit.

16Jordanian National Commission for Women, Jordan Jordan's 3d and 4th CEDAW Report (Amman: JNCW, 2007).

17There are two articles in Jordan's Penal Code which are applied in cases of honor killings: Articles 340 and 98. Both are explained later in this section of the paper.

18The Jordan Times, 28 June 2004.

19Interview with Ali Atoum, Jordan Times, 28 June 2004.

20R. Huesseini, ‘The Status of Women in Jordan 2004–2009,’ in Freedom House Report (Freedom House: Washington, DC, 2010).

21R. Husseini, ‘Debate Continues over Personal Status Law’, Jordan Times, 20 October 2010.

22IAF's Women's Committee Statement on the Amended Personal Status Law, 7 March 2010.

23M. Ben Hussein, ‘Women Islamists Praise Proposed Amendments’, Jordan Times, 29 April 2010.

24M. Ben Hussein, Jordan Times, 29 April 2010.

25Article 340 is rarely invoked in courts and states that any man who kills or attacks his wife or any of his female relatives in the act of committing adultery or in an ‘unlawful bed’ benefits from a reduction in penalty. Prior to its amendment in 2001, Article 340 provided complete exemption from penalty in certain circumstances. A second clause was added via the amendments in 2001 granting female attackers the same reduction in penalty which was never this way before. The section of the penal code most frequently invoked on behalf of perpetrators of ‘honor’ killings is Article 98. The article grants a reduced penalty to those perpetrators who commit a crime in a ‘state of fury’ resulting from an unlawful and dangerous act on the part of the victim. It does not require in flagrante discovery or any other standard of evidence of female indiscretion. If the extenuating excuse is established for a crime punishable by death, such as premeditated murder, Article 98 provides that the penalty be reduced to a minimum of one year in prison.

26 The Jordan Times, 25 February 2000.

27 The Jordan Times, 25 February 2000.

28An interview with Abdul Latif Arabiyat, Secretary‐General, Islamic Action Front party published in Human Rights Report Amman, ‘Honoring the Killers’, 19 April 2004, http://www.hrw.org/en/node/12141/section/5.

29Human Rights Watch Report, 2004.

30Jordan's electoral system reserves nine seats for Christians, three for Chechens and Circassians and three for Bedouins to ensure their representation in parliament.

31The interview with Riyalat took place shortly before the announcement of the Amended Election Law of 2010.

32N. Brown, Amr Hamzawy and Marina Ottaway, ‘Islamist Movements and the Democratic Process in the Arab World: Exploring the Gray Zones’, Carnegie Working Papers 67, March 2006.

33L. Tariki, ‘Islam is the Solution: Jordanian Islamists and the Dilemma of the “modern woman”’, British Journal of Sociology, 46:4 (1995), pp. 642–661.

34J. Clark and Julian Schwedler, ‘Who opened the Window? Women's Activism in Islamist parties’, Comparative Politics, 35:3 (2005), pp. 293–312.

35Hayat Messimi, personal interview.

36The JWU (founded in 1954) was closed down in 1957 due to martial laws introduced in the country in that year. It reopened again in the early 1970s during Jordan's preparation for the UN International Women's Conference held in Mexico in 1974. The appointment of the first female minister, In'am AlMufti, in 1979, brought significant challenges to the union in the years that followed. AlMufti is believed to have tried creating a competing body to the union. The GFJW was born against this background. Yet, the victory of Zumaily in its first election made the government reconsider the creation of the federation and limited its membership to organizations and not members. The JWU indentifies itself as a leftist organization and stands against the normalization of relations with Israel.

37Brand, op. cit.

38Nawal Faouri, personal interview, 3 April 2010.

39Nawal Faouri, personal interview.

40Bassam Imoosh, personal interview, 31 March 2010.

41Hayat Messimi, personal interview.

42Bassam Imoosh, personal interview

43Tariki, op. cit.

44N. Faouri, Gender and Family from an Islamic Perspective. The Higher Council for Population Affairs (Amman: Jordan, 2007).

45A. Kilani, The Notion of Gender, its Emergence, History, and Uses (in Arabic). The Afaf Charitable Society (Amman: Jordan, 2005).

46Sawsan Momani, personal interview, 1 April 2010.

47Department of Statistics, ‘Jordan in Figures’ (Amman: DOS, 2006), http://www.DOS.gov.jo

48Islamic Action Front, The Electoral Platform for the 2007 Elections, http://www.jabha.net/oldSite/body7.asp?field=jbh%20&id=2

49IAF's election platform, 2007.

50Islamic Action Front, The Islamic Movement and Reform in Jordan, http://www.jabha.net/oldSite/blas/Manifesto.pdf

51Women Section of Islamic Centrist Party (2009), ‘Liberating Women with Islam and not from Islam. A Public Statement on CEDAW’, http://www.wasatparty.org/Datanews/2009.htm#text

52Tariki, op. cit.

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