Jordanian authorities must stop colluding with an abusive male “guardianship” system to control women’s lives and limit their personal freedoms, Amnesty International said in a new report published last month.
Imprisoned women, stolen children: policing sex, marriage and pregnancy in Jordan documents how women accused of leaving home without permission or having sex outside marriage risk detention and humiliating “virginity tests” if male family members complain to the authorities. Women pregnant outside marriage also face forcible separation from their newborn children.
“The Jordanian government should urgently address these shameful violations that national women’s organizations have been battling for decades, starting with the zealous use of detention powers by provincial governors, and the discriminatory male guardianship system that allows adult women to be arrested for leaving home without permission,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“Over the past several years, the government has adopted several important reform measures to address gender-based violence, including through the opening of the Dar Amneh shelter for women at risk, but the time has now come to end the detention and ill-treatment of women simply for disobeying their male guardian or transgressing gender norms.”
Women are also at risk of being prosecuted for the crime of zina, which carries a prison sentence of 1-3 years. While both men and women may be prosecuted if their spouse complains to the authorities, a woman can also be prosecuted following a complaint by her male guardian. This gives male family members another tool to punish and control women.
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