Progress Amid Resistance

200 WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA4 percent are Christians. Shiite Muslims, Druze, and Baha’is make up theremainder. Matters of personal status—such as marriage, divorce, childcustody, and inheritance—fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of Shari‘acourts for Muslims, Druze, and Baha’is, and are regulated by the PersonalStatus Law (No. 61 of 1976). State-recognized religious minorities havetribunals that apply their own personal status laws, which are not publishedin the official gazette. Shari‘a does apply to the inheritance matters of non-Muslims, but Christian institutions often do not enforce this in practice.Jordanian law upholds citizens’ rights to move freely within the countryand abroad, except in designated military areas. Under the currentProvisional Passport Law (No. 5 of 2003), women are no longer requiredto seek permission from their male guardians or husbands before obtainingor renewing their passports. Nevertheless, the Personal Status Law al lowsfathers to prevent their children from traveling, and in several recent caseshandled by women’s rights groups, mothers involved in divorces were barredfrom traveling abroad with their children due to a travel ban im posed bytheir husbands. Social norms continue to play a major role in re strainingwomen’s freedom of movement in other ways, particularly in rural areas. Forexample, some families withdraw their girls from school at age 16 or refuseto allow them to attend universities, particularly if that in volves moving toanother place of residence.Welaya (guardianship) is a system in Jordanian law whereby a male relativeis appointed to act on behalf of and in the interests of a minor or anyother person of limited legal capacity. Any single woman under the ageof 40—whether divorced, widowed, or never married—is considered adependent of her guardian. Should such a woman rebel against her guardian’sdecisions, she will no longer be entitled to her financial maintenance.Although Islamic legal principles allow women to be the legal guardiansof their children, the Personal Status Law in Jordan only allows men to actin this capacity.Jordanian Muslims are required to marry according to Islamic marriagelaw. Muslim women are prohibited from marrying men of other religionsunless the spouse agrees to convert to Islam, while Muslim men are permittedto wed Christian and Jewish wives. A marital contract is concludedbetween the prospective husband and the guardian of the prospective wife,although a woman marrying for the second time can do so without herfamily’s approval. Under Article 19 of the Personal Status Law, a woman isentitled to make stipulations in the marriage contract, such as the right to