Progress Amid Resistance

206 WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICAJordanian Women’s Union. The union has also consulted with the JNCWon possible amendments to the Personal Status Law.RecommendationsF The government and parliament, in consultation with women’s rightsactivists, should amend the Personal Status Law to remove provisionsthat infringe on women’s equality within marriage, including the re -quirement that husbands approve of their choice of work or profession.Exceptions that allow underage marriages should be more tightlyrestricted or eliminated entirely.F NGOs should make a concerted effort to raise women’s awareness oftheir legal rights regarding marriage, and the government should workwith legal experts and civil society groups to develop a list of samplestipulations that can be attached to marriage contracts. Officials shouldread these aloud to prospective spouses to accommodate individualswho may be illiterate.F The government should take additional steps to protect the rights ofmi grant domestic workers and victims of human trafficking. Temporaryshelters should be established by the government or NGOs to housevictims of abuse or those with pending legal cases until their situationsare resolved.F To aid larger numbers of domestic abuse victims, the governmentshould open branches of the Family Reconciliation House in governoratesoutside the capital, and its mandate should be expanded to providerehabilitation and long-term housing solutions to its clients.F The government should criminalize domestic violence and work withcivil society organizations to raise public awareness of the problem andthe need to support victims through media outreach and visits to ruralareas.F The government should revise the Family Protection Law to expand itsnarrow definitions of domestic violence and create a specialized familycourt to adjudicate domestic disputes.ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITYThe economic transformation in Jordan over the past two decades didnot benefit all sectors of society equally, and women continue to sufferfrom a number of crucial disadvantages. 15 According to a report