Progress Amid Resistance

•★jordanby Rana HusseiniPOPULATION: 5,915,000GNI PER CAPITA: US$2,708COUNTRY RATINGS 2004 2009NONDISCRIMINATION AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE: 2.4 2.7AUTONOMY, SECURITY, AND FREEDOM OF THE PERSON: 2.4 2.7ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY: 2.8 2.9POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIC VOICE: 2.8 2.9SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS: 2.5 2.8(COUNTRY RATINGS ARE BASED ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 5, WITH 1 REPRESENTING THE LOWEST AND 5 THEHIGHEST LEVEL OF FREEDOM WOMEN HAVE TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS)INTRODUCTIONThe women’s rights movement in Jordan began in the early 20th centuryin the form of voluntary social and charitable activities. The JordanianWomen’s Union was established in January 1945, and after the kingdomgained independence from Britain in May 1946, the movement becamemore active in demanding greater political, social, legal, and economicrights. 1 Educated women were granted suffrage in 1955, but it was notuntil 1974 that all women received the right to vote and run as candidatesin parliamentary elections. In 1993, the first female candidate was electedto the lower house of parliament and the first woman was appointed tothe upper house, as women increasingly occupied leadership positions andstepped up their involvement in the political and social spheres. 2From 2004 until the end of 2009, the women’s movement made a numberof important gains, including the publication of the Convention on theElimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) inthe official gazette, which gave it the force of law. Additionally, the governmenthas taken steps to address the problem of domestic abuse, includingthe February 2007 opening of the country’s first major women’s shelter,the Family Reconciliation House, and the March 2008 promulgation of theFamily Protection Law, designed to regulate the handling of domestic193